First-half falls for US hide exports
08/08/2019
These figures represent a decline in value compared to the same months last year of 28.1% and a fall in volume of 18.7%.
For wet salted hides, which made up 10 million of the 12 million pieces the US exported between January and June 2016, the declines were of 33% in value and of 18.7% in volume.
Exports of wet blue, which contributed 16.8% of the volume of exports in the first half of 2019 but 34.4% of the value, declined by 14.7% in value year on year and by 19.2% in value.
In the course of the six-month period, tanners in China bought almost 5.2 million wet salted hides and just over 560,000 wet blue from the US. Both figures are down substantially compared to the same months last year, falling by 15% and 26% respectively.
Two pieces of better news for tanners and traders in the US is that Vietnam increased its imports of wet blue by 22%, reaching almost 530,000 pieces in the first half of the year.
Secondly, in spite of trade tensions and falling hide prices, the average price of US wet blue went up in the first half of 2019, reaching $105.96 compared to an average of $100.39 in the first six months of 2018.
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