The post ACLE hangover lasted most of last week on both sides of the hide buying/selling equation. This could be attributed to a few suppliers still travelling to call on customers, but most likely it is just a continuation of slow leather demand. There were reports of suppliers lowering prices, but we could not confirm it, as some of the lists put out had prices up at least $1.00. This led to most tanners staying out of the market as they tried to make sense of the offers coming their way. Most business done last week, from what we could tell, was on better material, i.e. big packer steers or dairy steers. Plump cows and low-grade material are still struggling to find homes, as they have for the last several months. It would be hard to say that close to a week’s production was sold last week, but then again, we felt the same about the week prior. Which led us and others to be surprised by the USDA Export Sales number for the prior week, which showed that a decent number of U.S. raw and wet blue hides were traded. The difference between the number units believed to have been sold and the number reported by the USDA could have something to do with the rumor that one large packer had to move inventory because of a buyer delaying shipment on outstanding contracts. Other than the rumored fire sale by the one packer, we would say that last week’s sale prices for U.S. hides were basically steady. Before the show, many tanners said they would hold off buying any hides until after the ACLE. U.S. Steer hide sellers seemed to be content with that approach by tanners, not showing any push to move product.
In our opinion the FOB plant prices for the seasonal average weight Big Packer Steer hide selections last week were, except for the Heavy Texas Steer hide selection, steady.
- Heavy Native Steer hides at between $55.00 and $56.00 per piece, unchanged from the prior week.
- Butt Branded Steer hides at $45.00 per piece, down $1.00 per piece, unchanged from the prior week.
- Heavy Texas Steer hides at between $33.50 to $35.00 per piece, down about $1.00 from a week ago.
The Export Sales Report released by the USDA on September 7, 2018, for the week ending Thursday August 30th stated that 606,500 whole cattle hides, and wet blue equivalents were sold for export during the period. This number is up from the 546,400 pieces reported to have been traded during the prior week. The biggest buyer was China purchasing 340,500 pieces of raw and wet blue hides. Indonesia was the second largest buyer with 68,600 contracted. The export/shipped number for the week was a bullish 658,200 pieces.
The estimated Federally Inspected Slaughter, (FIS) of cattle in the U.S. for the holiday shorten week ending Saturday, September 8, 2018, came in at 563,000 head. Year to date FIS is up 2.8 % from a year ago.
We expect that all U.S. hide suppliers will have returned from their Asian travels and will be in their offices this week. Tanners also should have fully recovered from the Shanghai show and most likely have an idea regarding how their finished leather business will shape up for this fall. Hopefully tanners see some improvement coming in their shoe leather business. We have the feeling that U.S raw hide suppliers are well sold ahead on their high end, good grading Selections of both Steer and Cow hides. We look for suppliers of these selections to be firm on their pricing and get some small increases on their sale prices. The values of the lower grading material, how can they go lower? LOOKING FOR A GOOD WEEK FOR ALL.
Golf Quote
“Do not be ashamed of choking… any golfer who has never choked on the golf course should be in an asylum… sooner or later all normal human beings encounter situations on the course that they are not, at that particular moment, emotionally capable of handling.”
– Paul Runyan
