The days before the start of this year’s APLF, Hong Kong bathed in sunshine and blue skies, a rare sight for this city in recent years but one that perhaps signalled three very positive show days ahead at the major global trade show for the leather industry.

At a time when much of the industry worries about leather losing market share in footwear, Austin Davidsen highlights the fact that great design and consumer preference is creating some real growth in parts of the Adidas range where many thought that leather was lost forever.

Luiz Paulo of GETTI Chemicals talks extensively about the location of technology in the tanning network. Technicians in the tannery nowadays do not have time for research and this has to come from the chemical companies.

As President of International Council of Tanners as well as Chairman of Taiwanese International Leather Association with investments around Asia, Richard Pai needs to fully understand the ongoing changes in China in great detail.

The 2016 All China Leather Exhibition in Shanghai took place at a truly key moment for the global leather industry. Raw material prices have been falling for over a year and the major dealers arrived in the hope that they could confirm that the bottom had been reached.