This week: Last week, at least in Europe, everything centred around the Lineapelle trade fair in Milan. We wouldn’t say that there were any great expectations. Naturally, the trade fair only plays a limited role in the overall and global events in the leather industry. Nevertheless, it remains the epicentre for everything that revolves around fashion, creativity and the use of leather for the finer things in life. For the mass market, it can at best serve as inspiration. For mass production of shoes, furniture or even cars, it means very little.

It is always a pleasure to be shown leather in all its beauty and elegance. Everything that can be done with the animal skin to refine it into leather is shown. The unbiased visitor can only be impressed. Except in very small sectors, we could not recognise any really remarkable new fashion trends. Naturalness, colour, touch and feel still play the dominant role, at least in Milan. Performance also, but in this show to a lesser degree.

Among the exhibitors, one had the feeling that everything more or less revolved around a few very successful and well connected leather producers. The household names that still serve the successful brands in the leathergoods sector had the biggest stands and in some cases you got the impression that it was more a question of the social event than actually showcasing the products. In the end, this is also part of the business.

There were also many stands at which you could only very rarely really see any visitors and disappointment could be seen in many faces. To summarise briefly, we can say that the spectrum between satisfied and successful and disappointed was possibly wider than ever before.

For raw materials suppliers, and therefore of course for us too, the trade fair is actually mostly just a place to meet and an opportunity to exchange ideas with colleagues and other people and to take away general impressions. It is clear to see that colleagues who are connected with slaughterhouses have been given clear directives that today’s low prices must come to an end. For many, it does not necessarily matter whether this is realistic or even objectively justifiable.

So far, these ambitions have only left their mark in the very high-end segment, but have not yet had any particular impact on the market for standard materials. The price changes are probably still rather minor for the time being, but tensions between the leather industry and meat producers are likely to increase in the coming months. However, this also means that some leather producers in Europe will take another critical look at their future.

The kill: Slaughter remains relatively high despite the extremely high prices for live cattle. We are now entering the carnival season and normally this should reduce volumes, but there is little sign of this at the moment. However, it won’t be too much longer before beef demand declines seasonally and then we will see what balance between slaughter capacity, meat demand and cattle supply can be found in the second quarter.

What we expect: Impressions from Lineapelle will probably be discussed on many fronts. There is not really any great need for action in Europe for new contracts. Preparations are now being made for the APLF fair in Hong Kong, which will bring together visitors from all countries. Major suppliers from the US, South America and Oceania will be there so this will be more of a reflection of the situation in mass production and the global demand for mass-produced goods. This will probably have a much greater impact on price trends in the coming months than Lineapelle. We do not expect any major changes until then. It is of course true that the time leading up APLF will mostly be characterised by suppliers trying to test the market with higher prices.

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