Market Activity & Analysis

Outstanding Export Sales

Tables 1 and 2 below show the total outstanding cured hide and wet blue export sales by selected countries through July 18. Through Week 29, the total outstanding sales are 4.906 million from 4.863 million the prior week. With the same period average weekly slaughter at 589,453 head, the cumulative outstanding sales represent 8.32 weeks of production from 8.28 the previous week.

Table 1 & 2.

Today’s Market

Prices remain steady as the week progresses. Reports that buyers are looking for some August, but mainly September, shipments of raw hides may offer a sense of stability by being sold ahead. However, the slaughter volumes still pose a threat to oversupply the market.

Today’s Trades

Packer Sales

HTS 62/64 @ $15.00

Processor Sales

No processor sales today.

Cured and Wet Blue Export Shipments by Selected Countries  —  Through July 9

Industry-Related News

July 21 (The Atlantic) – The Coronavirus Exposed the West’s Weakest Link

In Europe, Italy was hit hardest by the pandemic because it was hit first. Hospitals filled up with patients; one local newspaper was so overwhelmed with obituaries that it published only thumbnail-size ones. The entire country was subject to draconian restrictions, the strictest in the West. Still, Italy rallied: Infections are now under control, a contact-tracing system is in place, and its economy and borders have reopened, although not to visitors from the United States. Tourist-dependent cities like Rome, Florence, and Venice are still suffering, but Milan, the country’s economic engine, is slowly coming back to life. Italy is not out of the woods, though. It has the third-largest economy in the European Union, after Germany and France, and the second-highest public debt as a percentage of the economy, after Greece. READ MORE