What happened this week: Real news with very little to report due to a lack of activity. From the European perspective the situation did  not change at all. Italian tanners continued to try to depress the cow market, but as far as we are concerned not with too much success. Some tanners pretended, that they were able to buy another 3-5 % cheaper than in the previous week, but except some single load businesses we don’t believe, that a lot of volume was done. With the present abattoir purchasing prices sellers have not really a chance to lower prices and so most of the trade decided not to accept the bids and consequently very few sales were concluded. Talking about males the situation is still the same and so completely different. Automotive tanners still suffer from supply bottlenecks and the shortage is even extended now by the side leather tanners who have postponed their purchases for so long, that they have no choice other than to grab whatever is suitable. Here starts another problem. Falling avg. weights as a consequence of killing younger cattle and changing feeding methods do not anymore produce enough plump, good quality hides. Missing alternatives create consequently a very

difficult situation as the existing finished leather contracts have to be fulfilled and inventories are exhausted. Having described this we also have ton consider this as one of the reasons why we don’t manage to bring the abattoir buying prices in line to reflect the hide and leather market. Various processors defend their supply of bulls at every price and become so an easy victim for the butchers to overpay also the cows, despite the fact that their price level and trend is by far less positve. The falling USD and the substantial pressure on upholstery price levels do not justify the prices paid presently for this type of material. Having said this we have, however to admit that at least lighter weight dairy cows are presently the most economical hide one can buy on the market. Having seen at the end of the week again the impressing sales volumes in the USA one can assume, that the spread between males and females has to narrow by a final increase of prices for cowhides. Sales during the week were reasonably light and – at least in our case – only a few spot deals were concluded. The only really interesting activity came from Asia were we have had the first orders since long for dairy cows, but way below asking

Levels and so we turned them down and wait now to see if our counters are going to be accepted next week. Repeating again, that people want to buy what is not available and don’t want to buy what we have to offer describes again best the situation. The kill: The first and only week in May where we had a full killing week. So number increased a bit and something like a normal production and supply planning was possible. Next week will again only start on the Tuesday and so numbers will fall back again. Intersting was a comment from a vet who confirmed the ongoing slaughter of cattle under 24 month, but who was also positive for much heavier weights in the second half of the year. Lets hope he is right. What do we expect?  We have no reason why the situation should change short term. Bull will remain firm until the supply gets better and prices might even firm still a little. The decline of cows might come already to an end, provided the interest from Asia was not a fake. However, medium term we are anyway quite optimistic, that demand will return for cows in some weeks and prices for the lighter weights will get back into line. Asian buyers will return to the market and only the USD could prevent cows from settling or firming again.