What happened this week: A difficult, hectic and eventful year is slowly starting to wind down. A year in the hide and skin business which was mostly affected by external influences. Starting with the Iraq war, which paralysed and delivered a lot of insecurity to a great part of the world, followed by the SARS shock, which brought the whole of Asia to a standstill for weeks and in Europe everything was garnished by the constant and accelerating fall of the USD or rise of the € until the end of the year. All this fell into the period of structural changes and a fast rise of the worlds production giant – China, pegged with its currency to the USD. Well, hard to find more and more difficult challenges for a business like hides, skins and leather. And it has cost victims in Europe. Voluntarily and forced closures of hide and skin business as well as tanneries and one can assume, that this was only the tip of the iceberg. The ongoing change in the structure to bigger production units,  rising production costs in Europe combined with increasing obstacles in bureaucracy and administrational (veterinarian)  issues will make the life in the industry constantly more difficult, expensive and less competitive. Not the best preconditions for the business in Europe the

coming year. However, there are also positive signs. Many companies accepted the gage continued to grow, globalise or just improve their quality and service – and were extremely successful – taking the chance to get fitter for the future. The selection of the survivors still continues. The trading week was moderate and mixture between the final trades in Europe and some interest from Asia and again the Middle East. Surprisingly again mainly for male hides which have now become more and more ‘en vogue’ in the Orient. At the same time were dairy cows - the hot sellers of October/November – almost neglected, despite the very high prices quoted from the USA. Only some some bulk sales from export traders at several USD below market were noticed and one has to expect what the buyers will think when they receive the merchandise. It seems in general, that most buyers at present wind down their contract position and returning to the market beginning of 2004 as many are not particularly well covered for the first quarter of the New Year. Most of our customers in Asia are moderately optimistic about the business in the first three months. Luxury product manufacturers continue to deliver good news and also some premium furniture makers in Europe  

were not complaining about the order book for Jan/Feb. Auto manufacturers are also expecting a bit of growth for the next year, although we have to see if the firm € will not have its effects on the export side. Selling prices during the week were modestly softer in males to stay in line with the abattoir prices and mostly steady on cows, albeit the weak performance of the USD. However, prices for cows are based on so few sales, that they are not really representative.   The kill:. The final round before the holiday week(s). The kill again quite good and abattoirs and retailers were stocking up for the holiday season. In the coming weeks slaughter days are isolated and so will production be almost idle for the next two if not even three weeks.. What do we expect?: The next weeks will not offer much excitement in the hide business. May be one or the other oriental buyer might try to take the chance of the Season fish around for bargains. With most buyers in Europe being covered until the end of January impulses at the start of 2004 will have to come again from Asia. We are reasonably optimistic that the first months of the New Year will be more positive than negative.  We would like to thank all our friends, customers and esteemed readers for the support and cooperation in 2003 and we wish all a very Merry Christmas and  happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful  New Year!  

Dairy cows

15/24,5 kg

22,5/23,5 kg

13/22 kg

20/21 kg

€ 1,60

Steady

25/29,5 kg

27,5/28,5 kg

22/27 kg

25/26 kg

€ 1,40

Steady

30/+      kg

33,5/35,5 kg

27/+   kg

29/31 kg

€ 1,13

Steady