Last week got off to a slow start as many have recently. U.S. Packers, Dealers and Hide Traders, had a limited number Steer hides on their offering lists last week. Most of those Steer hide offerings were $1.00 to $2.00 higher than the prior week’s sales levels.
Tanners for their part, started the week saying that they would not be chasing U.S. Steer hide prices higher. They stated that leather business does not warrant higher hide prices. Some Asian tanner also mentioned that they had filled their raw material meeds for now and had purchased hides for shipment prior to February to avoid winter quality problems. As has been the pattern for the last month or so, by last Thursday and Friday enough tanners had entered the market to allow suppliers to push U.S. Steer hide prices, for certain selections and productions marginally higher. Again, as has been the case is recent weeks, those price increases were smallish, up no more than $1.00 per piece. These higher prices came with less volume as fewer tanners were willing to pay those higher prices. It did not appear that U.S Steer hide suppliers were able to move a week’s production. More interesting than the Steer hide market, was the renewed buyer interest that was seen for U.S. Cow hides. This interest allowed U.S. Cow hide suppliers to put some needed business on the books and in the process, they were able to do that at prices that were steady to up $1.00 per piece. That fact, in the face of reports from China of more governmental pressure on polluting industries, which includes tanneries. U.S. cattle slaughter last week was again, as expected, sizable as cattle supply remained ample as did profits for packers. The USDA’s Export Sales number for hides released last Thursday for sales made the prior week came in at, to us, a surprisingly high number. For Big Packer and equivalent Steer hide FOB plant values at the close of business last Friday, we are going to call the price for the seasonal average weight Heavy Native Steer hide $64.00 and Butt Branded Steer hide $60.00. There was a wide range of sale prices reported last week for the Big Packer seasonal average Heavy Texas Steer hide selection. Those prices ranged from a low of $49.00 to a high of $54.00 per piece plant basis.
The Export Sales Report released by the USDA on November 30, 2017 for the seven-day period ending Thursday, November 23rd stated that a healthy 761,500 whole cattle hides, and wet blue equivalents had been sold for export during that period. This number includes sales for shipment in both this year and next.
Federally Inspected Slaughter, (FIS) for the week ending Saturday December 2, 2017, was estimated 645,000 cattle. Year to Date FIS for cattle is estimated 29,323,000 head which is up 1.517,000 or 5.5 percent from the same period a year ago.
Don’t know if any of the U.S. hide suppliers will, when they put out their offering list this week will be asking higher prices. They certainly will not be asking less than they did a week ago. U.S. Steer hide suppliers claim to be well sold ahead. U.S. Cow hide suppliers are not saying that they are in well sold ahead positions. Tanners for their part say they will not be interested in paying higher prices for U.S. hides or in some cases even steady money. We are headed toward our year ending holidays here in the U.S. This means reduced working hours this month which will be reflected in lower production, slaughter numbers for U.S. beef processors. Will that decrease in production allow hide suppliers to obtain higher prices for the hides they do produce? We shall soon see.
Golf Quote
“Golf is not just an exercise; it’s an adventure, a romance…a Shakespeare play in which disaster and comedy are intertwined.”
– Harold Segall
