This week also dragged on rather like many before. At the beginning of the week, some market participants tried to throw all their tricks and arguments into the balance to give prices a spin and upward momentum. In particular, the low kill is then seen again and again as the central argument to justify higher prices. From our point of view, this was only crowned with very limited success and, above all, on the markets and with the articles that are exposed to currency influences, there was ultimately very little or no success to be seen. Nevertheless, buyers and sellers in Europe had to agree in some way during the week on new prices and quantities for the month of February. It was mostly a really exhausting task and a tough story. In the end, we would summarise the results by saying that there was little change in the December and January prices also for this month. From our point of view, this also corresponds to the current market situation and, to be honest, one could have had this as a result much more easily and perhaps much earlier. As early as January, there was actually a lot to be said for any changing of hide prices as little as possible in the interest of the general situation, at least until a clearer picture regarding the further development on the markets could be identified and explained. Now, this industry is not necessarily known for wise and longer-term considerations. In any case, this means that until the big gathering in Milan at the end of the

month, there is little reason to worry about prices at the moment. Until then, interest and attention will be focused on the Asian market, with China in the centre of attention, of course. When and to what extent will production and consumption in this giant market increase again and to what extent will stocks and supply chains have to be replenished?  Apart from the question of the general recovery in China, the focus is of course also on whether and to what extent products made of leather can benefit from this. From what one can hear in China at the moment, the most positive signals are coming from the automotive sector, a rather slow start is expected for shoes and for the furniture industry people in China are similarly sceptical as in other parts of the world. We’ll leave luxury goods manufactured in Europe aside, because neither do they affect our business and problems, nor is there any doubt about the positive assessment for this sector anywhere. This ends another relatively unspectacular week without any major changes in prices, and that is probably the best one can hope for at the moment at least as long as we will not get any support from other origins.

The kill

Nor is there any fundamental change in  the kill either. Beef is relatively expensive and sales obviously do not allow for full production at the slaughterhouses. There are every week again slaughterhouses that only produce four days a week and the others do not reach full capacity either. At the moment we lack the imagination what could change this in the next weeks.

What do we expect

We continue to find no really convincing arguments that could seriously move the market in the next few weeks. A certain uneasiness must be caused by the political tensions that can be seen every week somewhere in the world. In Europe it has already led to war and hopefully all parties involved will realize that war has never been a solution. With that, we are now intensively watching the developments in China, where the celebrations and holidays finally come to an end this weekend and so we are getting closer to the full return of all players out there.