Full-year figures confirm decline for US hide exports
Official figures confirm that 2022 was a weaker year for US hide exports than the year before.
In 2022, tanners, traders and packers shipped 30.5 million hides from the US, bringing in export revenues of more than $1.25 billion. This represents a fall of 11.8% in volume, and of 9.3% in value.
In the course of last year, leather manufacturers and traders in overseas markets sourced 26.7 million wet-salted hides from the US, paying a total of $869.5 million for them. This means a decline of 11% in volume and of 9% in value year on year.
The figures for wet blue show volume of nearly 3.8 million pieces and a combined value of $404.8 million. For wet blue, then, US exports fell by 14% in volume and by 10% in value compared to 2021.
China took by far the biggest volume of wet-salted hides with 15.75 million pieces, paying $498.6 million. But its imports of this material fell by 22% in volume and by 14% in value year on year.
For wet blue, the biggest buyers were tanners in Italy, who took more than 1.1 million hides from wet blue facilities in the US and paid almost $120 million for them. These figures, too, represent declines compared to 2021, of 9% in volume and of 7% in value.
