Hide prices remain steady on very low volumes of trading. The pandemic in China is rumored to be worsening which is slowing the transport of material. Because of the spread of cases and the shipping issues, both occurring just weeks before Chinese Lunar New Year, some tanneries are considering closing down earlier than usual. The furniture tanneries continue to show strong demand for hides, particularly Branded Steer (BRS), Dairy Cow (DC) and Native Cow (NC). 

The Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) synthetic fibers and crude petroleum producer price indices (PPI) was released for November 2020. The data show an increase of less than 1 percent for both indices from the prior month. Excluding the yet-to-be updated December data for the synthetic fibers PPI, the Q4 average of 2020 was down 4 percent from the Q4 average of 2019. The crude petroleum PPI Q4 average of 2020 was down 31 percent relative to the Q4 average of 2019. The steady decline in the crude petroleum PPI…