What happened this week: The same old story—when the headlines tell you where the market is going, expect the exact opposite. This is what has happened this time with the US$ exchange rate. ‘Europhoria’ came to an abrupt stop when all of the media began to predict a swift break from the €1.30 mark and a continued steep fall. For the moment, at least, the market seems to have paused and settled down. This, however, did not make much difference to the hide market during the week. The lack of disposable material still dominates and the shortfall, predominantly in the slaughter of male cattle, is creating the traditional delivery bottlenecks. The seasonal decline caused by reduced consumption and the holidays are reducing the kill more than the demand. Consequently, managing deliveries at present is more challenging than selling. Despite the fact that this sounds rather bullish for the hide market, it has to be considered that weekly demand has definitely declined. All in all, it now seems that there will be some kind of break over the summer. Although it is still too early to make a final judgement, there is no serious threat expected in the coming 4-6 weeks

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