What happened this week: Another quiet week has ended. Not really a surprise, considering that we have the next abattoir buying in front of us and – even more important – the Bologna Leather Fair. As a result neither buyers nor sellers were willing to take any major decisions, so that trading volume was limited and numbers in total were also small.

This is also related to the fact that in the catholic parts of Europe the week was shortened by a holiday on Friday that has cut activity as well. So the number of sold hides was in our case small, what is after the previous active weeks not a great problem. Sales were again effected mainly in low grade material and the overhanging stocks are almost cleaned up since these hides have been in the focus of interest for the past weeks.

Cows were quiet with selected spot businesses taking place, but without any participation of the key players out of Asia and Italy. Business in bulls was also limited to individual loads ordered from side leather tanners in Europe. However, what has been sold went on or close to asking levels again. As good as cheap, low grade bovine hides are selling as poor remains the business with lower grade light weights. Kips between 5 and 18 kgs do not see any interest now for a while and we would sincerely appreciate a stimulus from the Bologna fair. There should be a good chance with the change in the season and the price pressure we see for finished products. Considering how good in general calfskins were selling for quite a long time, anything but more interest for their cheaper counterparts would be a surprise.

Weighing on the bovine market did the cheap offers again from the UK and Ireland added by rumours of cheaper French material in the market, what should be a direct result from the difficulties of the French tannery, which has gone finally into the French equivalent of Chapter 11. Payments out of Southern Europe remain slow and one spends too much time to watch many of the creditors in that region. Having said this, it has also to be mentioned that the big and good customers there are getting as better, as the others get worse. So it is not a general comment.

The kill: The kill remains good without being at all impressive. A real slaughter wave like we have seen it in the past at the end of October can not be noticed at all. Weights are not anymore rising and we expect the present situation to last now for some more weeks.

What do we expect? Not the moment for predictions. It would need a massive surprise to lift the present pressure from the market. Tanners will try next week in Bologna to depress sellers in an attempt to lower prices again. We see still some downward potential, but only limited without US prices falling drastically. Otherwise the price gap would become too wide, what can not be expected. We miss also the number of unsold hides which would scare sellers enough to prepare them for major declines. So, for the Bologna week we don’t expect major changes and at best further moderate downward corrections also related to the weaker USD.