What happened this week: The seasonal slow pace of the summer continues and the history of the past three to four weeks is repeating itself. There has not been much business activity and again the question is whether this is because only a few offers are circulating or if tanners do not have such an appetite for hides. While in Europe we are now in the peak holiday season and tanners do not seem bothered about hide purchasing during their vacation, the Asian buyers are still sitting on the fence and watching to see if anything reasonable is offered that they could buy still for August or September shipment. This is creating little physical activity, but a lot of rumours. People who are available are talking and traders are particularly forthcoming with stories about the market. Some have even reported receiving bids which we would consider to be well above the present market levels and we fail to see what the intentions of spreading this kind of news around are or if some tanners are still short of hides for August/September and are now trying to find material with new suppliers teasing them with attractive price levels. Basically, pretty unlikely.

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