The summer vacations in Europe are now approaching at an accelerated pace. May has come to an end and June has started this week. This leaves very little time to prepare for the production interruptions in the European leather industry. This means that greater hopes and activities are now being placed on the Asian market again, as it seems relatively unlikely that additional and excessive volumes can be sold in Europe in the coming months. This means that without overseas shipments in July and August, many suppliers would then actually only have the alternative of storing the goods and hoping for improved business after the summer vacations. No one has the crystal ball today to predict what the world will look like in three months, and therefore those looking for security must find the alternatives today. Since Wednesday, the lockdown in Shanghai has almost completely ended, life is starting to return to normal and many are now counting on strong government support to quickly revive production and consumer demand in China. Opinions differ widely as to its potential success. What is clear, however, is that while buyers in Asia are complaining of reduced leather order books on the one hand, they also recognize that for many hides the price correction phase is either already over, or will come to an end for the time being in the short term. Of course, this is not true for all origins and product groups, but it is certainly true for many. However, to deduce from this a trend reversal and improvement of the business situation for the coming months is certainly still far too early. With regard to the demand for leather, no improvement can be seen at present, and we will probably have to wait until autumn to gain any conclusive insights into how the material leather will continue to develop. At the moment, the leather industry first has to find a stable calculation basis for the next season, which first has to be determined from the reduced raw material prices and

The kill

The kill remains stable and we would say, that abattoirs operate at abt 70-75 % of capacity. Again next week we have a holiday on Monday. This will again reduce next week’s volumes. Despite the low slaughter numbers, beef sales continue to weaken and cold stores and freezers are very full. The difficult beef business can also be seen in the significant drop in live cattle prices, especially for males.