Market Report 14.03.2025

What happened this week

Although the trade fair in Milan was not so long ago, many people made the effort again to travel to Hong Kong for the APLF trade fair. Different composition for the mass markets. If one remembers the great times, then the size and significance of the fair must now seem very manageable. The organisers have to use a very clever lay-out structure to give the impression that this is a well-booked trade fair. Most leather factories are probably only represented because their stands are subsidised by their governments n the country pavilions and Chinese exhibitors are rare. The leather factories that exhibit individually are mostly those that already have a stable customer base in Asia and do not expect to attract new customers, but rather use it as a central meeting point to talk to their regional customers in one spot. Although it is relatively difficult to judge exactly, it seems that there are clearly more exhibitors and visitors looking to sell raw and semi-finished goods than there are visitors looking for leather suppliers. Apart from that, everything was the same as always, only much more relaxed. There was no big news to tell, all opinions and views on the current global political situation and its effects had already been exchanged beforehand and therefore the discussions were actually very professionally focussed on the existing and functioning business relationships. Of course, we were not in an easy position, because at least for our customers in China – and most of them still are there – it was not clear if and when we would be able to deliver goods and import to China would be possible again. Although there was news on the second day that Germany was generally considered FMD-free again, with certain minor restrictions, it was not known until the end of the trade fair whether the Chinese authorities would see it that way straight away. At least the first step has been taken and now we hope that the German authorities will quickly and intensively find a solution with the Chinese authorities. As of today, this has not yet happened and even goods that were shipped before the outbreak have not yet been cleared for import. Without really being actively involved in the market, it is of course difficult to make a real assessment of the market situation. In principle, however, it can be said that demand remains rather depressed and therefore price pressure is still more likely to persist for most categories. This was also evident for many other countries of origin. In earlier times, such a situation would certainly have caused a lot more excitement, but the trade is now taking it much more calmly, safe in the knowledge that there is not much they can do to change the situation. The great renaissance in demand for leather has not been observed in Hong Kong either and the only thing that can now be taken for granted is that some leather production, especially for shoes, has once again started to move more towards the Indian subcontinent. For the few deals that were available, prices changed very little and when they did, they had to be adjusted slightly downwards. In conjunction with the weaker dollar, revenues in EURO on overseas markets are therefore falling again.