Leather Pipeline: heading into difficult territory, despite China
A new, exclusive Leather Pipeline industry-specific market intelligence report is available to read as part of the November 17 edition of Leatherbiz Weekly.
The report suggests the leather industry could be “heading into difficult territory again”. The reasons it gives for this centre on the lack of certainty about the months ahead and the problems consumer-facing companies are having in generating positive results.
Yes, there was something of a lift following the lockdowns of last spring and this is reflected in the more positive third-quarter results many companies reported, but the pandemic is still a dominant factor in countries’ economies and people’s lives and uncertainty remains.
China is certainly an exception. “China is performing fantastically,” Leather Pipeline says, “and the numbers for consumption and production are higher than a year ago. This applies to the whole economy, including leather production and consumption. Factories are producing and people are shopping.”
It goes on to say this is especially true of furniture upholstery. Tanners and furniture manufacturers took advantage of low hide prices earlier in the year to put together collections that have proved popular among consumers, triggering genuine growth in demand.
The automotive leather market has done well too.
This is not the case for side leather producers, though. Tanners in this segment have said business is down by at least 10% compared to last year and, for some, the decline could be by between 20% and 30%.
