Italy’s penchant for US wet blue is not about price
27/07/2017
We reported on July 20 that Italy has become the US’s biggest customer for wet blue exports this year, taking over from China. US figures show that Italy imported just over one million wet blue hides from there between January and May 2017, an increase of 36% year on year. Over the same period, China imported 965,000 wet blue hides from the US, a year-on-year fall of 4%.
Using data from ISTAT, Italy’s official statistics agency, although for the first four months of the year only, UNIC has confirmed double-digit increases in volume and in value for wet blue imports from the US. Between January and April, imports from the US amounted to more than 15,500 tonnes of wet blue, which had a value of €56.6 million. These figures represent year-on-year growth of 14% and 16% respectively.
However, over the same period, Italy’s imports of wet blue from other important origins, most notably Brazil, declined substantially.
By some margin, Brazil was still the biggest source of wet blue for Italian tanners in the January-April 2017 period; they brought in 33,259 tonnes of wet blue from Brazil in the course of those four months, spending €70 million. The numbers in this case represent declines of 19% in volume and of 8% in value. Although starting from a smaller base, imports of wet blue from neighbouring Paraguay also plummeted, by 33% in volume and by 22% in value.
UNIC offered no reason for the rise in popularity among Italian tanners of US wet blue. It cannot be a question of price because US wet blue was almost 75% more expensive than Brazilian in the period in question. While tanners spent just over €2,100 to bring in one tonne of wet blue from Brazil in the first four months of this year, the same volume of material from the US cost €3,633.
Nor is there any reason to think Italian tanners are turning away from South America in general because increases in the volume and value of wet blue imports from Venezuela and Bolivia have gone some way towards compensating for the declines in shipments from Brazil and Paraguay.
The total volume of wet blue that came into Italy between January and April was 133,636 tonnes. The combined value of this material was €391.6 million. Volumes fell by 7% year on year, although the overall value went up by 2%.
Share this story:
