Market Report 26.07.2024

What happened this week

Unless there is surprisingly major activity in Asia, there is really no need for market reports from mid-July to mid-August. While there used to be surprising events from time to time, even during the holiday season in Europe, this has almost completely disappeared in recent years. The leather factories have covered their reduced production with raw materials and are therefore almost completely absent from the market for several weeks. Of course, there are always the odd chance hits that can arise from individual situations, but this has nothing to do with market activity. The number of available dialogue partners in Europe will also fall considerably at the end of this week and this will hardly change in the next 2-3 weeks. The demand and procurement is based on the orders for leather and only those who believe in real miracles and surprises can assume that there will be any significant activity in Europe until the end of August. In Asia, the situation is somewhat mixed overall. While the main focus is on China, and here on the centres in Hebei and Shandong, there is probably not much good news to report at the moment. The business situation there is poor, which is reflected not only in a general reluctance to buy, but also in the well-known background noise in this market when prices fall and orders are lacking. Otherwise, China is focussing on low-priced raw materials and trying to keep prices down wherever possible. In the opinion of the tanners, the supply of raw materials still exceeds the demand for leather, so the parameters for the market situation are actually set. Of course, this is only true for those who see the situation the same way and there are still those who expect a different view and a trend reversal in autumn.  Selling was again rather random this week. The volume buyers did not appear on the market and most of the business was done with specialists and niche producers, which is in no way representative of the market trend.