What happened this week: It is pretty much the same as the last few weeks. Market activity remains subdued for various reasons: the seasonal break ahead of us, a holiday on Thursday in the southern parts of Europe, the ‘abattoir buying party’ and, last but not least, the cautiously awaited decision about the import and VAT tax regulations by the Chinese government. News and final decisions are expected soon and maybe on Monday we will know more about the situation. It seems, however, that Chinese tanners are less excited about the subject than the rest of the world. At least in our case we can’t see any delay in shipments or other interruptions to business processes in relation to the decision. Well, as usual the argument is being used by buyers to justify bids below the market level. So, in the end, sales were reasonable, but basically only boosted by some of the regular renewal of regular programmes. On the ‘free’ market, sales were again isolated and widespread over types and markets. A bit of everything, everywhere describes it best. The US$ again remained in its long-term trading range this week. It finished the week however, on the lower side of the trading range around the €1.18 mark.

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