HIDE MARKET.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 310, 31 December 1937, Page 4

HIDE MARKET.

COLLAPSE OF PRICES. LOW VALUES UNWARRANTED. Unfortunately there is no stability in the hide market yet, states the latest . report of Messrs. AA . Y\ etldel and (.0111-, pany. Since last repoi t was written no i further sales of heavy ox hides have taken | place and the maiket is therefore nominally | lat the last pi ict? paid, equal to aboutJ 1(i 7-Hid. With the continued absence of demand it is toured that pii.es may be aLraiu iii.ii ked back iu older to enable i packers to avoid accumulation of unsaid ' stocks, as they intend to do during this 'very uncertain period. ! At present there is no accumulation ot hides worth mentioning, but it is to lie hoped that there will be further sales ' before the week is out. to prevent it hap- ' i polling. The American markets are depressed. Following 011 the large sales of "actuals."' very little new business has been done this week, but nevertheless there has been 110 fresh decline in price, which means that heavy native steers ate nominal at l.V'2 cents and light native cow hides at 12 cents. It is feared, however, that unless the packers keep selling, further reductions may be necessary. Behind all those difficulties it is still hard to find any real ; cause for a major slump. There is eer--1 ! tainly nothing to warrant such a collapse so fiir as this eountrv is concerned, and even in the I nited States conditions are I not, by any means as bad as they might I annear. looking through the spectacles of ■ | Wall Street and the main commodity markets. I That, there are still difficulties j the Administration and '"Big Business ' there is no doubt, but it is certainly the j desire of President Roosevelt to avoid at all costs anything in the nature of a & I severe setback to world values, which i | havp during the last few years been I steadily improving. I Leather Market Slow. While the hide market shows such weakness it. is quite impossible for the tanner to risk buying in quint.itv any fresh sunplies of raw material. The tanner is. in fact, too much concerned with the sale of leather, which from week to week is becoming inrreasinglv hard to move. It is reported that leather prices have not as yet been drastically cut in order to clear stocks, and the fact that the tanneis have been very cautious in their buying policy for some months has no doubt !' I assisted them to maintain a firm attitude. What is really happening now appears tn be a genuine reduction of input of raw " material which will continue while the weakness in the raw hide market lasts. ■Meantime, the tanner will dispose of hi? leather as carefully as possible. Sooner '* or later, of course, there is bound to bo a check and a sharp rally in raw hide prices, because everyone is agreed that current values are very low indeed. Leading Argentine Frigorifico prices art to-dnv as follow:—B.A. heavy ox. 6%<1 to 6V4d: B.A. light ox. 6%dto6V&d: 8.A., extremes. to B.A. light cows fi'4d to' 6%d: B.A. defective ox. 5%d tc 6d: B.A. defective cows. s\4d to 5%d. The New York futures market ha< suffered badly during the week# March and .Tune closed yesterday at 0.79 cent* and 10.10 cents respectively, as against j 11.15 cents and 11.45 cents a week ago. ! "Miscellaneous and colonial hides are stil it taking n back seat, with no bidding. New te Zealand freezers are steadier in the absenct 1 of supplies, j e