What happened this week: The war is on and everyone can only hope it will not last very long and victims will be few. Since the decision is taken the general circumstances are starting to normalize. Stock markets recover from their massive losses, the USD is gaining further ground and oil prices have been temporarily falling, but remain extremely volatile. Thinking where we were just 10 days ago things look fundamentally much better with the exception, that a war is nothing good at all. The war and the SARS disease is weighing on the mood of many people and quite a few cancellations of trips are heard. Quite a few people claim, that they will not travel to Hongkong this year for that particular reason. We expect, however - as usual – that most will still change their mind when the event is really getting closer and the final decisions  on the air tickets have to be made. By the way, there was also hide business during the week. Despite all negative news and influences, sales were once again reasonable. Most of the interest was again from shoe tanners.

Hides which had been difficult to move for some time, enjoy now more interest week by week. So, where ox/heifers again in the focus of interest, but also bulls enjoyed more inquiry. Prices achieved were about on asking levels or down by a percent or so. To be noticed is the widening price gap between chilled and salted hides. European tanners in great sympathy for chilled material are only willing to accept salted material with substantial price concessions. Dairy cows remained under a certain price pressure with Italian tanners again in ‘downbidding’ mood to check how far they can squeeze sellers down. With little support for dairy cows from the Far East this week they found selected victims who decided to move a load here and there. So prices came off by 2-3 % vs the standard prices seen  for a long time.  Also the stronger USD was of little support for the overseas business and with missing bids to deal with. Low grades enjoyed again very good demand with steady price levels. An absolute nightmare remain light weight kips between 5 and 14 kgs, where for months now hardly any demand

can be found. It seems, that no tanner in the world is using this type of material anymore. With another good sales week with more falling, rather than rising prices the price trend is in contrast to the business. However, most sellers still prefer to stay sold rather than to hold out and to bet on better prices in the near future. The kill: Absolutely stable on the present levels with now changes. With the spring very slowly arriving in the North also the traditional ‘select-out’ slaughter is late this year. What do we expect? Against our expectations fell prices  moderately this week. It seems, that the market is presently more driven by the general circumstances rather than supply and demand. This will only change when sellers have to turn down the first bids due to insufficient availabilities. For the present moment we remain more optimistic than the majority, but this will not change very much and the market will continue to stay under pressure. As soon as the Far Eastern buyers return to the European markets the negative trend will be lifted without much upward potential, but supported by the stronger USD and higher prices in other parts of the world.