The situation in Central Europe is slightly different. Although there is still isolated interest for hides, there is significantly more resistance and tanners are really trying to bid the market down, particularly in Italy. With some temporary success in buying selected hide types at slightly lower levels in recent weeks, they have found this sufficiently encouraging to test whether this could also work on a broader base. With most suppliers being well cleaned up there was not too much enthusiasm as far as the sellers were concerned, but it was worth a try at least.

This might not apply to the entire market. The only area where there might have been some accumulation of hides was in south eastern Europe, and these sellers being focused on the Italian market obviously found it quite surprising that buyers were heading in the opposite direction as far as prices were concerned. We understand that a number of sellers spent almost the entire week trying to convince their regular buyers in the Mediterranean that the market is firm and they had to accept the asking levels of the suppliers. It doesn’t seem that they were able to overcome the gap as the week wound down and the biggest problems are said to be for skins between 5-18 kgs and extra heavy bullhides.          The good news during the week came from the lamb and sheepskin market. Despite all the negative impressions, interest from all over is continuously improving. There is still a struggle on prices, and still no fun, but one gets the impression that fashion and the attractive price levels, plus rising wool prices, are starting to influence the situation. At least it seems that skins are being considered again. The rest of the market has not presented any further impressions. The outlook for consumer goods is still said to be positive and positive reports were also heard from the Cologne Furniture fair. We believe that the mood is actually better than the real situation and it is important to analyse which market segments are really benefiting.

The kill: The kill remains on the lower, albeit normal, seasonal levels. The slaughter mix is missing a certain percentage of males at the moment which does not fit well into the market environment. This puts butchers into a comfortable sales position and leads to overheated abattoir prices.

What do we expect: there is still no reason for a change from the supply and demand level, but we can sense the rising resistance from the tanning industry. This is still really not enough to make the market move lower and this may still take a while, but the upside momentum has certainly stopped. Some exclusive items are even ready for a correction for which the mainstream market might still need a bit more time. So, in general, the steady trend for the main items will continue with some minor variations now becoming possible, influenced by the currency market.

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