What happened this week: Week by week we are finding it more difficult to asses the real market situation. If it is based on the small window of our business the situation still remains pretty regular with a decent volume of sales and some tailwinds from the currency market. Since this is only one perspective, which doesn’t seem to represent the whole market, one has to be more cautious about the overall situation. We can’t deny that the stories and information we are getting from the markets around us are by no means as balanced. Everyday during the week we heard further news that markets in Europe are declining and once again it is pretty difficult to separate gossip from the facts and truth. However, one thing can be said for sure. Whatever the type of hide and/or origin, if one focuses solely on the European customer base, it is becoming increasingly difficult to balance the supply and demand and some sellers seem to be losing their nerve as the end of the year comes into view. As a consequence one was again hearing of pretty low prices mainly from the UK, Ireland, France and Italy which, in the majority, focus their sales on a European customer base.

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