Market Report 06.06.2025

What happened this week

This week, the political course in the USA continued unabated. If it didn’t have such far-reaching consequences for the world, it would be a marvellous soap opera that would guarantee fantastic viewing figures. The outcome between ‘money and politics’ will be interesting. In autocratic systems, the outcome would be clear, whereas in a system that is still democratic, much will depend on the outcome of this dispute for the future. The hide market here is largely unimpressed by these events. What can we do except try to minimise the potential risks and hope that the effects are correctly assessed. Otherwise, we continue to report the same conditions as in previous weeks. Insufficient leather orders, although it is debatable whether this is due to the season or the general lack of consumer demand. The summer holidays are also already the subject of discussion and it seems that most leather factories are planning to close production completely and possibly extend the interruption. The usual outsourcing in parts to maintain the flow of chilled hides could possibly be cancelled this year. If the rumours are confirmed that automotive production in Europe may be affected by the reduced export of rare earths from China, this would lead to a further reduction in the demand of leather from the automotive industry. It is to be hoped that, as in the past (chip shortage) , high-priced vehicles will be the last to be affected and that this will also have an impact on the demand for leather. A certain amount of relief for the market will result from the relatively low level of slaughter, i.e. supply of hides, which is likely to continue for some time to come. This may be the first time in the recent past that we are faced with a situation where the decline in the supply of rawhide is greater than the reduced production of leather factories. Although this does not change the fundamental problems, it would initially take some pressure off the market. However, anyone who wants to draw the reverse conclusion from this, that this would be a reason to ignore the general problems of the market and to expect that this would change everything for the better in terms of price, could be mistaken. In any case, it is noticeable that many leather factories are currently working on new articles and looking for new ways and options to stabilise their production again. Due to all these circumstances, the market has found a certain balance at the moment, which still continues to prevent from major changes in prices. The continued weakness of the US dollar is weighing on overseas sales and revenues in EURO and the prices reported from competitive markets do not give much hope for a recovery in the market. China has still not lifted the ban for German hides and one can be quite sure that this is also caused, because they are not needed. Sales this week were sufficient and prices have not changed.