What happened this week: Three more BSE suspects in Germany and further chaos and confusion. Due to the daily media hype consumer confidence has declined to almost zero. Beef and beef product consumption has declined even more. After Thailand also Korea imposed a ban on European hides. However, the ban from Korea was lifted again towards the end of the week. So everything back to normal. Interest for hides was quiet again. Many tanners have decided that hide

prices are far too high and the justification of a supply problem is not enough to overpay. The only exception are the users of heavy bulls which are still covered by good order books. Many other market segments report a slow down of orders, or colour instructions and insufficient shipments for January. Reports of shutdowns of American auto factories and problems in the retail market have also not delivered better news.  Sales were patchy and mainly in light weights.

The kill: The kill is still anywhere around 30-50 %. The politicians have still no plan how to return to an organized slaughter. With the low beef consumption the kill has little chance to improve short term. What do we expect? To cut a long story short we expect the female market to decline due to the exchange rate situation and the bull market to remain steady until alternatives have arrived or the kill improves. Our fear of financial problems remains and we still expect problems.