US ships almost 2 million fewer hides to China
The Leather and Hide Council of America has published details of hide exports for the first seven months of this year.
Figures show that tanners, traders and packers exported a total of 18.1 million hides between January and July this year, bringing in total revenues of just over $765 million.
Compared to the same period in 2021, these figures represent a fall of 5.9% in volume but a small increase, of 0.3%, in value.
Wet-salted hides accounted for more than 16.8 million of the total number for the seven-month period in 2022 and brought in revenues of $518.6 million. This represents a 6% decrease in volume but a 1% increase in value year on year.
For wet blue, the volume was almost 2.4 million hides, with a value of $243.7 million, down by 4% and 1%, respectively.
China was still the biggest market for US wet-salted hides, but the volume fell by almost 2 million pieces compared to the same months last year. From January-July 2021, Chinese tanners imported more than 10.7 million wet-salted hides from the US. The corresponding figure for the same months in 2022 was a little over 8.8 million, down by 18%.
Italy, once again, imported the highest volume of wet blue, more than 735,000, an increase of 26% year on year. However, Italian tanners paid less for the US wet blue they imported, almost $72.4 million, than their counterparts in Vietnam paid for a smaller volume. US tanners shipped just over 650,000 wet blue hides to Vietnam with a value of $74.8 million.
