What happened this week: Being able to use a repeat button would be the easiest and most adequate way of creating the report at the moment. We have had another week of unspectacular business and sales activity. A few transactions were concluded, mainly in Europe, and several bids came from the Far East, but they were insufficient to make an impact at the present exchange rate. The buyers cannot be blamed for this as their bidding levels fitted quite well into the global price structure but abattoirs certainly can for their insane purchasing levels, at least in the major selling markets, where there is now little opportunity to reach a satisfying agreement on prices. The situation in Europe was marginally better with a few isolated deals available. Prices for heavy cows moved closer to asking levels and, if one craved for entries in their sales books, these deals were the best ones available. However, as far as volumes are concerned, they were far from satisfactory. The only bright spot remained the ‘under 15 kg section’ where a widespread interest remains tangible and where wisely priced offers sold easily across the globe. Artificial prints continue to be a fine product in the ladies shoes section and tanners, especially the Italians, are once again showing great creativity in converting lower qualities into fine products to keep the consumer happy. The main issues remain in the economical upholstery market, where the circulation of finished leather prices hardly matches any raw material available. Business can, however, be quite terrific for the standard supplies from South America, Russia and Africa, as they are generating more unsolicited offers than ever before. Yet this casts little light on the leather market at the moment. For a long time all this material was easily absorbed by the markets and suppliers looking for new customers were few and far between. How desperate they now must be can be seen by the fact they are prepared to search for buyers in countries such as Germany, where the leather industry does not offer many opportunities for economical raw and semi-finished products. Thus, despite a generally strong commodity market, hides and skins are definitely not participating. We can openly brand them the losers of the present situation in which the manufacturers are trying to balance other rising costs with cheaper raw materials and the retailers are trying to expand their marking by exercising their purchasing power in an oversupplied market. Europe is also already thinking of its long Easter break whilst the rest of the world is relaxing ahead of the APLF where a face to face analysis of the market environment can be made.
The kill: There was a modest recovery in the kill of bulls but it is still far from normal. The total numbers are reasonable but in no way impressive. We are now anticipating the end of March and the end of the milk quota, as well as warmer weather arriving with the start of spring.
What do we expect? Most trade is now positioning itself for the Hong Kong Show and speculative views regarding the market in the second quarter are starting to circulate. We refuse to join the optimistic fraction and believe the market for furniture hides will sidestep, at best, whilst shoe and heavy hides may hold out, simply due to supply reasons. With the Easter break round the corner, this week will once again provide no excitement.
|
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 |
€ 1.45 |
Steady |
|
|
25/29.5 kg |
27.5/28.5 kg |
22/27 kg |
25/26 kg |
€ 1.33 |
Steady |
|
Dairy cows |
15/24.5 kg |
22.5/23.5 kg |
13/22 kg |
20/21 kg |
€ 1.40 |
Weakish |
|
|
25/29.5 kg |
27.5/28.5 kg |
22/27 kg |
25/26 kg |
€ 1.28 |
Weakish |
|
|
30/+ kg |
33.5/35.5 kg |
27/+ kg |
29/31 kg |
€ 1.18 |
Weakish |
|
Bulls |
25/29.5 kg |
27.5/28.5 kg |
22/ 27 kg |
25/26 kg |
€ 1.52 |
Steady |
|
|
