Figures that the Leather and Hide Council of America has shared put the volume of wet-salted hides exported from the US in the first month of this year at just over 1.6 million, a fall of 22% compared to January 2023. By Leatherbiz.

These hides brought in export revenues of $52.8 million, a decline of 21% year on year.

However, the figures for wet blue showed an increase in volume. Exports of these hides were up by 15% in volume to reach 349,050 pieces in January. In terms of value, though, these wet blue hides brought in $33.2 million, a fall of 3% year on year.

An important part of the explanation of these changes is that, while tanners in China imported 25% fewer wet-salted hides this January compared to a year earlier, they imported 78% more wet blue hides.

Shipments of wet blue to Vietnam more than doubled to reach 102,371 hides, the biggest volume of any export market.

Italian tanners imported 60,000 US wet blue hides this January, down by nearly 60%. In January 2023, Italian tanners paid, on average, $112.94 per wet blue hide from the US. In the same month this year, the average price of wet blue hides shipped to Italy was a little less, $111.58.

In January 2024, the average price that Chinese tanners paid for US wet blue was $88.23 per hide.