In the first 4 months of 2019, exports of US raw hides and skins have been decreasing by 13.5%, in terms of volumes, and by 23.6% in terms of value (that is, -435.3 million dollars). Flicking through data provided and made public by USHSLA (the United States Hide, Skin and Leather Association), one can see that all product categories, in nearly all business areas, have been going through a negative performance. From January to April, wet blue hides decreased by 7% overall as regards revenues coming from international exports: Italian buyers (-18%), as well as clients from China and Hong Kong (-18%), and Mexico too (-49%), have been declining considerably; augmented sales in Vietnam (+55%) and Taiwan (+149%) will not offset unfortunately. The only good news is about average prices, which went down slightly (just -4%). US salted hides have been doing even worse, as their turnover dropped by 31% (that is, -284.4 million dollars). At the end of April, the business trend proved negative in all the most important export markets: China and Hong Kong (-37%), South Korea (-19%), Mexico (-12%) and Thailand (-48%).
USA raw hides and skins slump in 2019 as revenues drop by 23.6% in the first 4 months
