Between January and October 2022, packers, traders and tanners in the US exported 25.8 million hides, with a total value of just under $1.1 billion. These figures represent an overall decline of almost 13% in volume and of 8.3% in value compared to the same months last year. [Declines for US hide exports as China sales fall by 25% -Leatherbiz]
The 2022 figures comprise 22.5 million wet-salted hides and a little under 3.3 million wet blue, bringing in values of $733.1 million and $347.4 million, respectively.
This means wet-salted shipments reduced by 13% in volume and by 9% in value, while the declines for wet blue were of 12% in volume and 7% in value.
Exports of wet-salted hides to the US’s two biggest markets, China and Mexico, were down in volume by 26% and 14% respectively. But while the value of exports to China also fell, by 16%, shipments to Mexico increased in value by 2%.
In contrast, shipments to the third-biggest market for wet-salted, South Korea, increased in volume by 3%, but declined in value by 19%.
The biggest buyers of US wet blue hides were, as before, tanners in Italy, but exports to that market declined by 4% in volume and in value. Vietnam overtook China to become the second-biggest buyer of US wet blue; it imported 6% fewer wet blue hides, but paid 3%. China’s purchase of this material fell by
