What happened this week: Another report where we could have copied most of last weeks into this weeks. Sales were good again but as already for some weeks now. again to regular and good name customers. All of the sales and interest was for bulls this week and the volume of interest was bigger than what we wanted or had to sell. This is what everyone would call a firm market, but again we do not believe that the real fundamentals for a firm market with rising prices have been reached. We have just a number of events which we were warning already many weeks ago. June/July everyone was so de- and impressed by the slump of prices that it was hard to find anyone who was not predicting a long lasting further slide and many buyers went into their holidays expecting to return and to buy another x % cheaper. So did many leather buyers and consequently we are now in a period where predominantly tanners now finally have to take purchasing decisions

with a market having levelled out in the meantime. Customers of a certain quality feel now that the price levels reached are attractive and they don’t meet sellers who are willing to listen to any substantial lower bids anymore. So, the few good ones try to secure the levels. So far, so good, as this is all still the frame of an orderly balance between physical demand and supply. The problem now is, that we have plenty of market politics going on. We have various interested parties who would like to see prices higher in October. Tanners who have bought hides in volume over the summer, as well as hide suppliers who have decided not to sell and to come with a reasonably priced inventory out of the summer. Since this is the speculative part of the game it is dangerous as it was in April/May when also then speculation was the driving force and not the fundamentals. We were mentioning the yo-yo effect already some time ago and hope that the trade can still avoid it. It is

neither good for the whole, nor will it solve the problems of the individuals betting on it. Everyone should remember, that nothing has changed since mid July and so there is no reason to change the attitudes.   The kill:  Same as in the previous week with still the majority of the production in bulls. What do we expect? The tone for males has now changed from neutral to friendly. Females are well sheltered by the high cow prices in the USA. So, short term we do not see any downward potential anymore. For the coming weeks we still have a decent list of male buyers, who have to buy hides. This will keep the male market steady to firm. Cows entirely depend on further orders from Asia which haven’t been seen this week. However, no reason to lower prices. Who has to buy, can or has to pay present levels. We still do not expect any major changes, but if any it will be on the upside rather then on the downside. In total we still think that the supply is good enough to satisfy the needs if all hides are offered to the buyers.