Our latest Leather Market Intelligence report is available to read from November 9 in the Intelligence section of the website. It suggests that we can expect a “very lively end to 2021”, writes Leatherbiz.

Hide prices have come down in recent weeks and there is the possibility of tanners in China taking advantage of the situation to stock up. This has happened many times in the past. So far, however, these buyers seem cautious. There is also a chance that production could be interrupted in many parts of China if the government seeks to curtail manufacturing in general around the time of the Winter Olympics, which open in Beijing on February 4.

Around the same time, industrial activity will pause anyway because the Chinese New Year holiday will begin around February 1.

More widely, the report warns that the segments of the leather industry that work with bovine hides may have to get used to cattle hides going to waste in substantial volumes. “No one is going to bother with the processing of this commodity if there is no longer adequate remuneration for it,” the report says. “Since leather can be replaced by other materials, there is no incentive to change if leather as a material is no longer held in high esteem.”

It points out that those in the industry who work with sheepskins have had to live with this same situation for a long time.

In response, it says that we all must “fight for leather to become a universally respected and sought-after material again”.