What happened this week: The hide market - or business in general - is no real challenge at the moment. Most of the activity relates to discussions with regular clients about their needs and ensuring that they have secure and consistent supplies. Since there is hardly any inventory left, most of the just-in-time deliveries have to be negotiated on the current kill and production. This is a real challenge as the kill and the composition of the grades delivers surprises on a weekly basis. Despite all of the concerns about the market, there are still enough fundamental requirements to clear up what is on offer at the moment and no hides on offer remain unsold. Although this is a positive situation, everyone can sense that European tanners are only buying what they still desperately need to cover themselves into their holidays, and not a single hide more, as having spoken with tanners, their faith in achieving sufficient increases in leather prices in the near future is pretty limited. It would be a bit too optimistic to expect them to admit otherwise as this would lead to the hope of higher raw material prices.

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