Things were more firm for the U.S. hide market last week. Suppliers started the week by putting higher prices on the Raw and Wet Blue hides that they offered. Tanners, in turn, started last week bidding at levels that were lower or steady with the previous week’s contracted prices. By Thursday & Friday, both sides started to come together, and a decent amount of business was booked at prices steady or a little higher than the week prior. The items that obtained price improvements were mainly from specific origins which are considered ‘premium’ origins. That is, those origins with reputations for highest quality productions, be they Steer/Heifer or Dairy/Plump Cow hides. The result of this buying pattern- those suppliers of premium productions found themselves with well sold forward positions by the end of last week. At the same time, other less well-known productions may not have been able to get better-than-steady money for their wares, and therefore may not have been as comfortable with their sold ahead positions by Friday. Complaints about the lack of leather orders, mainly from some of the Korean and Chinese tanners persisted while other tanners in the same Korea and China areas seem to be enjoying decent business. It seems that tanners making leather for certain sectors, particularly Auto or upholstery industries, then business has been ok. Tanners in other sectors, mainly hand bag or shoe leathers, are fighting their competition for the limited orders available this season. Did the U.S. raw and wet blue hide suppliers sell a week’s product last week? Again, it is difficult to say on a whole. But, in line what we mentioned above, those who control/market the more desired productions easily sold all they wish to. The USDA’s Export Sales Report for raw and wet blue cattle hides released last week for the prior week and the U.S. cattle slaughter for last week remained healthy, no big change in either number. As for the FOB plant market prices on the U.S. Big Packer Steer hide selections we are going to leave the Heavy Native Steer hide $61.00 per piece, putting the Butt Branded Steer hide price at between $56.00 and $57.00 per piece, and the Big Packer Heavy Texas Steer hide selection between $48.00 and $50.00 per hide.
The Export Sales Report released by the USDA on October 19, 2017 for the seven-day period ending Thursday, October 12th stated that 581,400 whole cattle hides, and wet blue equivalents were reported sold for export during that week. China was the leading buyer taking 379,400 or just over 65 percent of the pieces sold. Italy was the second biggest purchaser taking 47,900 hides all of which were wet blued.
Federally Inspected Slaughter, (FIS) of cattle for the week ending Saturday October 21, 2017, was estimated to be 632,000 head, up from the estimated 622,000 head processed the prior week. Year to Date FIS is up 1,392,000 animals or 5.8 percent from the same period last year.
Look for all the U.S. raw and wet blue hide suppliers to raise their asking prices this week. We think that tanners, for their part, may need to pay suppliers’ new higher asking prices for premium origin productions, if they wish to purchase any. For the less coveted productions, steady money from buyers is more likely to secure some product, but we don’t expect to see any supplier taking less money for any selection this week. We don’t expect any meaningful change in either the U.S. cattle slaughter or the USDA Export Sales numbers that will be reported this week, so no surprises there. But, let us see how this week develops.
Golf
If NASA really wants to find water on Mars they should just send me there to hit a golf ball.
