The Asia Pacific Leather Fair came and went last week leaving the hide market unaffected. Reports from U.S. hide suppliers who attended the leather show in Hong Kong appeared to come away with similar opinions. Those opinions being that the show was well attended. There were few reports of U.S. raw and wet blue hides changing hands during the show. The U.S. steer hides traded, other than those rumored to have been moved by one of the Big Packers at lower prices, were at steady money. The U.S. Cow hides that were sold during the week, were a mixed bag. The Dairy Cow hide producers were able to move their sale prices up $1.00 while Plump Cow hide sale prices were steady. It is not a surprise to anyone involved in the hide and leather industry that not many raw material sales were consummated in Hong Kong last week. After all, the APLF is a leather show not a hide show. Tanners who had booths at the show were there to display their leathers and meet with their buyers, the leather goods manufacturers who were in attendance. Tanners hope to come away from the show with an idea as to how much demand can be expected for their leathers during this Spring and Summer. The USDA’s Export Sales Report which was released last Thursday, for the week ending Thursday, March 7th for U.S. raw and wet blue hides, was up a bit from the prior week’s number, but still not a positive for the hide market. The shipment/export number on the report was on the other hand positive. U.S. beef packers continue to run up positive per head returns, with a good number of cattle processed through their plants last week despite the horrible weather in the mid-west last week.
Here is what we are calling the FOB plant prices for some of the seasonal average weight Big Packer Steer hide selections at the close of business last week:
- Heavy Native Steer hides at $44.00 to $45.00 per piece, unchanged for the week.
- Butt Branded Steer hides at $41.00 per piece, unchanged for the week.
- Heavy Texas Steer hides at $30.00 and $31.00 per piece, unchanged for the week.
The Export Sales Report released by the USDA on Thursday, March 14th for the week ending Thursday, March 7th. Stated that 414,900 raw and wet blue hides were sold for export during those 7 days. This number is up from the 375,200 pieces reported to have been sold for export the previous week. The big buyer was China taking 169,100 pieces of raw and wet blue hides. The report also showed that 574,800 pieces were shipped/exported during that week.
The USDA estimated the U.S. Federally Inspected Slaughter, (FIS) for the week ending Saturday, March 16, 2019, to be 593,000 cattle. The number was weather effected.
Hopefully tanners who took part in the Asia Pacific Leather Fair last week came away with a positive feeling about their leather business going forward. There will still be some U.S. raw and wet blue hide suppliers working in Asia this week. Those travelers will be meeting up with and calling on their tanner customers, many of whom worked and participated in the Hong Kong fair. Don’t expect those tanners to show their hand right away, but maybe those travelers will glean a little feeling from the tanners regarding weather the APLF was a good show for them or not. We expect that the demand for leather will improve as we move toward the summer, as it normally does.
CREATIVE PUNS FOR THE EDUCATED MIND
It’s not that the man did not know how to juggle, he just didn’t have the balls to do it.
A backward poet writes inverse.
