What happened this week: The week ended on a more positive tone after the previous weeks of uncertainty. The dollar had the most losses and, added with the previous weeks, reached almost 2% for the week. Until Wednesday business continued at its slow pace but on Thursday and Friday interest perked up and a satisfying number of hides was finally sold. Bids were numerous and wide was the spread of prices. Most of the inquiries were far below asking levels and even the firmer dollar didn’t make them attractive enough. However, some prices were on acceptable levels but below asking prices. With a favourable currency factor enough sales for the week were generated. It has to be mentioned that almost all sales were generated with non-regular buyers. The consistent customer base has found present price levels far too high and had not bee willing to follow the market until Friday. Consequently, interest and sales focused on more non-regular buyers who were looking to fill production gaps or find alternatives for even more expensive sources. Despite the results achieved this week one has to be aware that, for the time being, these are just flurries without any consistency. In addition to the business in the regular cattle hides, bargain hunting continued, and, in view of the high level of prices of the regular material, a lot of bargain hunting took place. Light hides and light weight materials which had not found any reasonable interest for a long time suddenly attracted speculators and buyers who put price in front of goods and enabled us to sell, and hopefully, eventually shift undesired stocks. Apart from the price factor this is also confirming the trend of the fashion that we believed to realise during the Bologna Fair this spring. At the moment, all activity is being driven by the Orient, as European input has almost come to the holiday standstill. Only productions still running are already preparing for the shutdown, maintenance or preparation of the post holiday supplies. Order books of the Asian tanners must be reasonable, as they have waited for the summer break in the Western world in the hope of gaining some cheap bargains. A bargain, however, can only be judged by the buyer when he turns the raw material into leather. However, we still believe that there are no miracles around and you don’t resolve problems with the calculation of cheaper raw materials. The kill: Still on holiday levels. Astonishing is the proportion between cows and bulls. The cow kill is exceptionally low while the bull kill is pretty steady. The relation between males and females is currently pretty much in favour of the males. These will be the hides some tanners are going to miss when they reopen their beam houses after holidays and look for fresh material. What do we expect? The pressure we felt in the last weeks, in particular for cows, has definitely faded, mainly due to the increased value of the dollar. Apart from not much has changed. The summer months do not deliver any reliable basis for market judgement, although European sellers are certainly feeling much more comfortable now. The real trend will only be seen well into September, when more news about leather orders and prices for the next season will be available.

Type	Weight range	Avg. green weight	Salted weight	Avg. weight salted	Price per kg green weight	Trend
Ox/heifers	15/24,5 kg	22,0/23,5 kg	13/22 kg	20/21 kg	€ 1,55	Steady
	25/29,5 kg	27,5/28,5 kg	22/27 kg	25/26 kg	€ 1,40	Steady
Dairy cows	15/24,5 kg	22,5/23,5 kg	13/22 kg	20/21 kg	€ 1,55	Steady
	25/29,5 kg	27,5/28,5 kg	22/27 kg	25/26 kg	€ 1,43	Steady
	30/+      kg	33,5/35,5 kg	27/+   kg	29/31 kg	€ 1,25	Steady
Bulls	25/29,5 kg	27,5/28,5 kg	22/ 27 kg	25/26 kg	€ 1,52	Steady
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