‘Coping with Change’ was the subject of the much-anticipated Hide and Leather Forum held on the second day of the ACLE and serves well for the evolving theme for the whole event.  The Forum, in which an expert panel from around the world worried about all matters from hide prices through the destruction of the rain forest in Brazil, covered many of the issues being played out on the exhibition floor.

The atmosphere on the floor on the second day was best described by exhibitors as busy and optimistic.  Andrew Fairhead of Stahl said “the show is quite buoyant particularly in sectors such as upholstery”. 

While he believes it is hard to get a precise feel on the proportion of Chinese automobiles made with leather upholstery – which was a question raised in the seminar – Fairhead was able to say that in many smaller cars in China,  leather is a standard material to use whereas in the rest of the world it was only an option.  Furthermore, for smaller cars, buyers in China could and often did still opt for leather as it is viewed as prestigious.  Fairhead also noted that some sectors such as sports footwear and clothing were not yet recovered, although the Chinese footwear market remained strong.

ACLE’s Shanghai venue is seen as particularly good to address Chinese buyers and Mr Hussein from Hafde and Mr Tadelle from ELICO, both exhibitors from Ethiopia, indicated that they found the fair helpful in meeting new buyers.  They agreed that meeting just one or two quality buyers make the show worthwhile. 

Mr Yang Jen, the President of the Taiwanese International Leather Association, along with Secretary General Sam Chou felt that customers “do come to the Shanghai show to place orders for shoe leathers” saying that they “see leather and buy”. With regard to the recession they argued that “we have reached the bottom already”, and -illustrating the economic trends - they likened the recession to the shape of a ‘V’ – rather than the ‘W’ that some people have predicted.

One of the important differentiators for the Taiwanese tanners is that they work closely with customers to adapt to meet ever more demanding requirements.  The results are reduced lead times and lower transaction costs.  Both these aspects came out in the seminar as critical issues for tanners as brands look to hold smaller stocks and demand rapid delivery instead.

Notice of the improvement in trade was widespread.

Martin Keppner of the German company Carpetex  indicated: “ While the decline in the last quarter of 2008 and early 2009 had been very steep, we have the chance to improve in the second half of this year. Carpetex is offering a new system of bleaching using hydrogen peroxide.  This has historically been difficult in creating leather which is either rubbery or weak, but with the new system is excellent for bleaching hides to avoid the variation of pigmentation colour often found with wet whites. No damage is done to hides and the system can be adapted for small skins.

Back at the Roundtable, uncomfortable issues were raised and dealt with openly, and on fair grounds the arguments and discussions will continue during the show. 

Issues included: whether a re-write of the Contract No 6 will ever be enough to deal with the raw material contractual issues faced at the bottom of the recession, or is a new contract needed which better suits the Asian mindset and approach to business. Regarding the Amazon, can we ever be sure that we can properly trace a hide from the former rain forest once it has been split and divided into sides? Yet the seminar was told that some 8 million hides could be affected out of a total Brazillian hide supply of 40 million.  The impact here could be severe as the US hide supply will be down 3 million hides and Argentina nearly a million in 2009.

Returning to the exhibition floor, Mike Dodd, marketing director of the UK tanning group Pittards said they had been busy. “There are plenty of people on the ground; with lots of Chinese interest which is why we are here. We are very happy with the fair”.

For the second day, exhibitors and visitors alike were “coping with change” at the ACLE.

Coping with the changes in hides and leather industry