Hide Market

We are going to call last week’s U.S. hide market fully steady.  We can’t say for sure what the volume of sales consummated by U.S. raw and wet blue hides suppliers last week was, but we can say with confidence, that sale prices were steady.  With many U.S. hide sellers traveling in Asia last week calling on their tanner customers prior to this week’s “All China Leather Exhibition”, it was hard for us to get a feel as to how much business they put on the books during the week.  We suspect that … [Read more...] about The Hide Market Report – August 28, 2017

U.S. Steer and Heifer hide sale prices last week were basically steady to slightly higher on a few productions.  Our feeling was that the volume of business booked was a good deal lower than the average sales of the prior three weeks.  We say this, not only because of the interest we saw from tanners but also because there seem to be less pressure for sellers to move product.  This was indicated by the fact that suppliers in general presented shorter offer lists to their customer base.  Also, … [Read more...] about The Hide Market Report – August 21, 2017

Sales of U.S. raw cattle hides picked up last Thursday and Friday after starting off the week rather slowly.  Early last week, some suppliers offered a few or no hides at prices that were slightly higher than their last sales levels, while other suppliers put out offering lists that showed multiple selections available at steady prices.  These variances in supplier offerings were confusing to buyers, to say the least.  Despite the rather large volume of sales that had been reported for previous … [Read more...] about The Hide Market Report – August 14, 2017

Last week’ U.S. hide market was active.  For Steer/Heifer productions, sale prices remained steady or moved slightly lower, let’s say up to $1.00 lower.  At the same time, sale prices for U.S. Cow hide were mixed, with the values of all selections (other than the Native Cow hide selection) moving marginally higher.  Last week’s USDA Export Sales Report on U.S. raw hides and wet blue hides for the week ending Thursday, July 27, 2017 showed that many pieces were traded during that period.  That … [Read more...] about The Hide Market Report – August 7, 2017

Over the past month, U.S. raw hide and wet blue hide sellers have been able to put together a fair number of sales, but not enough to stabilize prices.  Last week started slowly, but by the close of business on Friday we came away with the feeling that suppliers had sold enough product to at least put a temporary bottom in the market.   By Friday, suppliers were comfortable enough with their positions to say ‘no’ to any lower (and in some cases steady money) bids.  Asian tanners, for their part, … [Read more...] about The Hide Market Report – July 31, 2017

U.S. hide prices fell again last week.  Though it is our feeling that a fair number of hides were traded during the week, we still don’t think that suppliers were able to move a week’s production.  Last week’s cattle slaughter number in the U.S. remained steady with recent weeks at well over the 600,000-head level, and we just don’t believe that U.S. raw and wet blue hide suppliers sold that many units. Tanners, other than the auto upholstery tanners, continue to say that there are not enough … [Read more...] about The Hide Market Report – July 24, 2017

This past week was a slow one.  Lack of meaningful bidding by tanners was the main reason that only limited business was put together on U.S. raw and wet blue hides last week.  Bids within $1.00 to $2.00 per piece off the prior week’s sale prices were either booked by sellers or countered at reasonable levels.  U.S. Federally Inspected Cattle Slaughter came in over 630,000 head last week.  Although that was expected, that number did not enhance hide sellers’ positions with their tanner … [Read more...] about The Hide Market Report – July 17, 2017

The Fourth of July holiday, which we observed here in the U.S.A. last Tuesday, really broke up trading for the week.  Since most U.S. suppliers of hides and wet blue did not put out offers until Wednesday last week, there was only 2 days left to gather bids and move product.  This coupled with the lack of interest from tanners internationally resulted in a limited amount of business being put together during the week.  Last week's limited activity comes on the heels of a string of … [Read more...] about The Hide Market Report – July 10, 2017

U.S. Beef Packers had another record breaking run last week, setting an all-time record for their per head profit margin for the cattle they slaughtered.  For obvious reasons, these U.S. packers processed more cattle last week than any other week during this year.  While this was going on we continued to hear from our customers in Asia that their leather business has not improved.  They insisted that with the supply side growing U.S. raw hide and wet blue hide prices must come down.  From our … [Read more...] about The Hide Market Report – July 3, 2017

Last week was a slow one for the U.S. hide market.  From what we could tell, there was not a lot of business done between U.S. raw hide or wet blue hide sellers and their tanner/customers.  For U.S. Plump Steer and Heifer hides, there did not seem to be enough activity in the market for suppliers to sell a week’s production.  However, recently when the USDA Export Sales Report is released for one of these “slow sales weeks”, the number of pieces sold is a substantial number, even though we know … [Read more...] about The Hide Market Report – June 26, 2017