What happened this week: As expected the week was quiet as general activity was concerned. The holiday on Thursday in most of Europe as well as the Bologna Fair next week reduced activity considerably. So, the week began with cleaning up the paperwork on the desk and with nice and longer periods of silence and short lists of e-mails. Only a couple of overhanging orders form the previous week were booked and nothing else. The relax lasted until Wednesday and as usual when one expects it at least things happen. Starting late Wednesday activity increased and inquiries came in. Mainly for cows from Asia, but also for sheep and lambskins from Turkey again. Wherever possible we tried to reach agreements with our regular customers and sold at slightly below asking levels and in the hope of further declining purchasing prices at the abattoirs. Having a lucky hand and good timing on the currency market made some deals at the end even looking quite decent at the end. All sales were generated in cows while ox/heifers and bulls were left over for discussions in Bologna. A few bits and pieces were also seen in light weights (kips and calf), but this was about it for the week and this was

much more than what we expected. This is certainly not the turn-around point, but it proves that demand for hides on a worldwide basis is quite constant again. In addition it cant be ignored anymore that more and more production presently has or is shifting towards China. Information about the leather orders have been mixed. Many consider the furniture business better again, but with the usual price pressure. Production volumes were only maintained after major price concessions. In the shoe business many of our clients speak openly about a good production situation,  but the with problem that nobody can obtain normal lead ties or programs. Customers don’t commit anymore and buy as much hand to mouth as possible. With this insecurity  inventories decline constantly. The warm October has also reduced some of the re-orders of the winter season. A big surprise where also the ‘re-adjusted’ statistics from the USA where this week previously ‘un-reported shipments’ turned up, what might bring the numbers back in line, but not the confidence into the reliability of the data. It looks much more than somebody organized the clean-up of old contract which will anyway not be honoured anymore. If the

figures turn finally out to be true, than we have to admit that those using the data for their purposes having played their cards very well. Interesting were also the news from Russia, that responsible politicians over the weekend may reduce or cancel the export tax. This would make Russian hides available and competitive again. The kill: The killing season is in full gear now. Just the holiday on Thursday reduced slaughter, so that the total number for the week was equivalently reduced. As normal for the year most of the kill is concentrated on cows  and this will stay until end November. What do we expect?  The coming week will mostly be influenced by the impressions people gather from the Fair in Bologna and since the stimulus of such a fair in both directions can be quite strong we have to wait for the results. With the actual hide prices leather is attractive again and hopefully manufacturers and designers have already forgotten about the hype in the first quarter. At least it seem that quite some of the weight pressuring on the market is more and more lifted and we will return to more settled market conditions over the next week. Certainly we will need that European buying is taking over part of the expected seasonal decline in Asia.