On the roller coaster of US hide exports, salt-cured hides are rising (sharply), while wet blue hides are falling (heavily). This is confirmed by data from USHLA, the US hide, skin and leather association. In the first two months of 2017, the amount of raw tanning material shipped from US ports increased by 6.9%, reaching 4.6 million pieces. But as we said, this was not due to the wet blues: exports of these fell by 12% in volume, from 1.1 million pieces for January-February 2016 to 970,000 for the same period this year. The crash was similar in scale if you take into consideration export values. While overall foreign sales of USA hides rose by 9.8% (335 million dollars), driven by the double figure growth in salt-cured hides (+20%), there was a drastic fall in exports of wet blue hides. Turnover in this area was 91 million dollars, 10% less than for the same period last year.
No half-measures in exports of raw materials from the USA in the first 2 months of 2017: a boom in salt-cured hides, a fall in wet blue hides
