What happened this week: There was a lot of activity of all kinds during the week. Due to the abattoir negotiations all over central Europe the week started quite slow, but by Wednesday afternoon interest all of sudden perked up and so became the holiday in Germany a working day finally. By Friday another week of good sales came to an end and numbers were better than one could have expected at the beginning of the week.

As positive as it may sound, some remarks have to be made. The trade is not easy or quickly finalized, activity is not across all markets and grades and every deal requires immediate attention and quick action to be successfully locked in.

The classical European standard products, such as heavy bulls and high quality selections moved relatively steady again at or almost at asking levels. Not a surprise after the strong sales performance of German premium brands in the USA and the positive outlook the car industry has given during the Paris auto show.

Cows and the other grades were a sellers challenge and sales had to be made with great effort and ambition. To get to acceptable price levels, smaller markets and clients had to be followed, while the classical block deals either failed or one had to accept price reduction of 2-4 % based on asking levels.

Asia was also not a bright spot this week with holidays, the dock strike in the USA and no positive news from the garment sector. Considering, that the US market is the determining factor for the world hide markets everyone should continue to keep a close eye on the market situation over there. If the dock strike is going to last for some more days it could interrupt the supply pipeline and it is at least questionable if this could be made up quickly enough not to loose finally production numbers which at the end can not be compensated anymore before the end of the year. If this is the scenario, this could weigh efficiently on hide prices and would offer domestic US and European tanners a good chance for short term bargains on some grades. We have to express our admiration to our US colleague who has drawn his readers attention to the growing risk of a dock strike for a long time already.

The kill: No change in the kill. Increasing only in weights, but not in numbers. Live cattle traders report and export statistics show large numbers of male live cattle being exported to the Middle East. Numbers are really big and everyone has to take into account, that these hides are gone and will not return – at least for quite some time.

What do we expect? Premium hides have still no reason to change and they will in the short term also not be affected by possible influences of the dock strike. Medium and lower grade hides will have a more difficult time due to the margin problems the industry faces generally. Much more than marginal declines, however would be a surprise as we still do not sense any overhanging quantities burdening sellers so far. Hides are selling. In any case one has to keep an eye on the political (military) as well as on the strike situation.