A large number of U.S. raw hides and wet blue hides were traded last week. Buyers started the week bidding below the previous most recent sales levels, with a fair number of orders booked against some of those lower bids. However, as the week progressed, sellers became more comfortable with their sold ahead positions and buyers, some of them with short positions, entered the market. By the end of the week Steer hides values had moved off their lows to price levels, depending on the Steer hide selection, that were either even with the previous week’s levels or in some cases slightly higher. Some of those in the trade considered the U.S. Steer hide market to have grounded. We can’t confirm that the market has grounded just yet. We do seem to have hit at least some level ground from which Steer hide prices could move higher. During the week, the sales prices on U.S. Steer hides were again reported in a wide range. This can be explained by the fact that sellers in some cases were allowing buyers to average down some outstanding sales that were contracted at higher levels. In other cases, we saw where buyers were forced to pay higher prices to cover their short positions. At the end of last week, we would call the FOB plant prices for Big Packer Steer hides as follows: $ 71.00 to $73.00 for Heavy Native Steer hides, $70.00 for Butt Branded Steer hides, and between $62.00 and $64.00 for Heavy Texas Steer hides. For the Cow category, Dairy Cow hide sales were satisfactory at steady money as demand seemed to improve as the week progressed. Not much was heard regarding sales of Plump Native or Branded Cow hides. The sales that we did hear, were better than the prior week’s levels by $1.00 to $2.00 per piece.
The Export Sales Report released by the USDA on July 16, 2015 for sales made during the week ending July 9, 2015, showed that 549,500 cattle hides and wet blue equivalents were sold for export during that week. Although this sales number was down almost 20 percent from the previous weeks reported sales number of 679,800 pieces it was still a healthy number and basically equal to that week’s slaughter.
The Federally Inspected Slaughter (FIS) for the week ending Saturday July 18, 2015 was estimated to be 538,000 cattle, down from the previous week’s estimated FIS of 551,000 animals. The FIS for that same week last year was 584,000 head. Year to date the FIS is off by about 7 percent from the same period a year ago.
Did the hide market hit a bottom late last week? We should know the answer to that question by the end of this week. There are still a lot of negatives influencing the market. A number of the Chinese tanners continue to say they are struggling because of slow leather business, cash flow problems, environmental issues, poor split values and so on. The positives for the hide market are the accumulation of sales that have taken place over the last month, the continued low slaughter number here in the U.S., and the entrance into the market by tanners who are located outside of China. Are U.S. hides a bargain at today’s price levels? It seems that some buyers feel that way or they would not have entered the market. Some of those buyers have entered after a long absence. We continue to hope for all concerned, producers and tanners alike, that we do see increasing stability in the market.
More of Mulligan’s Laws
There is no movement in the golf swing so difficult that it cannot be made even more difficult by careful study and diligent practice.
No putt ever got longer as the result of a ball being marked.
