Strong growth continues for US hide exports
The Leather and Hide Council of America (LHCA) has published the volumes and values of hide exports from the US in the first seven months of this year.
Between January and July, tanners, traders and packers from the US shipped 20.4 million hides to markets overseas, bringing in export revenues of $770.3 million.
Compared to the same months in 2020, these figures represent an increase of 60% in volume and of 56% in value.
In the first seven months of 2021, just over 18 million wet-salted hides were shipped abroad, with a value of $525 million, up by 62.5% and 61.4% year on year.
For wet blue, this year’s figures so far show shipments of a little under 2.4 million hides and export revenues of nearly $245 million, up by 44.9% and 45.9% year on year.
There was growth in all the major export markets. Tanners in China were, by far, the biggest buyers of US wet-salted hides, taking almost 11 million between January and July 2021, more than 60% of the total volume.
However, for wet blue, Vietnam was the biggest market; 648,261 wet blue hides went there over the seven-month period, compared to 603,529 to China and 585,530 to Italy.
