Now spring is in the air

The Leather team have been hopping around the world lately picking up local information along their way. In Argentina the recent decision of the government to control the price of meat also affected the leather industry. Backed by a long history of high meat consumption but faced with increasing inflation the government took steps to control meat prices, leading to a reduction in exports. Slaughterhouses processed fewer cattle and thus the supply of raw hides reduced.   Meat companies and the government have now reached an agreement which has eased the situation. From early April the meat producers agreed to provide a certain level of meat cuts for domestic consumption and as compensation the government will allow the rest for exportation. However, government interference along with high demand from the tanning sector led to higher raw material prices.   Currently there is no recognised tanning park in Argentina but things may be about to change with the establishment of Acuba otherwise known as Asociación de Curtidores de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.   A group of tanneries led by Curtiembre Francisco Urciuoli e Hijos have acquired land next to the Riachuelo river in the Lanús district, some 15km from the centre of Buenos Aires. The idea is to create a centralised tanning zone housing several tanneries in a cluster with the major advantage of sharing amenities such as effluent treatment. So far three tanneries have signed-up and Gaita have a fully operational tannery on the site and a further two tanneries for Urciuoli and Giordano are under construction.   The new Urciuoli plant will begin production towards the end of 2006 and allow the company to increase capacity from 1,300 hides and 2,000 splits a day to 4,000 hides and 4,000 splits per day. The new tannery is currently under construction but will be among one of the most modern in the world when it completed with a purpose built beamhouse area located next to a very spacious finishing plant.   Wyny, Mexico, have an additional plant under construction in Rondonia (north west Brazil) with a planned capacity of 4,000 hides per day. Their latest expansion was the acquisition of a new plant in Argentina. Located in Avellaneda (in the province in Buenos Aires) the modern plant was bought from the GRD group last October. Wyny plan to produce vegetable tanned leather and leather for automotive upholstery there.   Another new tannery under construction is in Vietnam. The Perrin-Rostaing Tannery is a French owned company seeking to manufacture footwear in a financially agreeable climate. With 50% of footwear made in China and 50% of garments expected to be manufactured there by 2010, China may have seemed an obvious choice but 54% of the manufacturing is through foreign direct investment and footwear production in China is largely controlled by Taiwanese and Korean companies. Add to that the language barrier, and Vietnam becomes a much more attractive proposition.   In China itself, Maydiang Leather Co Ltd are building a beamhouse at their tannery in Jiangsu province. They are also planning a new tannery which will be built across the river at the other side of the same province.   We have already published details about East Hides new joint venture tannery between Crest Leathers and Vanzella Couros in Paraná state, Brazil and they tell us that they will have two more tannery openings this year. One is the tannery in Tanzania which we wrote about in April 2005 and the other, the Almaty tannery (a very large plant presently under construction) is in Eastern Europe which we will be reporting about later this year.