Chairman Of The International Leather Committee: World Leather Industry And New Regulations

1. World leather production and trade. In 2003, the total leather production in the world was 1 billion 900 million square feet, China's leather production accounted for 21% of the world's total production, Italy accounted for 10%, India accounted for 8%, Korea accounted for 7%, Brazil accounted for 5%, and the total production of five countries accounted for 51% of the world's total.

In addition, Mexico accounted for 4%, the United States accounted for 4%, Turkey accounted for 3%, Spain accounted for 3%, Argentina accounted for 3%, Pakistan accounted for 2%, Thailand accounted for 2%, and the 12 countries mentioned above accounted for 72% of the total world leather production.

By 2006, the world's total leather production reached 2 billion square feet, while China's leather production increased the fastest.

In 2003, the total value of leather trade in the world was 48 million 840 thousand dollars, the total trade value of blue wet / leather / finished leather was 155 million 80 thousand dollars, and the total value of leather shoes trade was 256 million 250 thousand US dollars, which amounted to 460 million 280 thousand US dollars.

Cattle and sheep are still the main cattle for the production of leather. In 2007, the data showed that cattle accounted for 65% of the total amount of production of leather, followed by sheep, pigs and goats, accounting for 16%, 11% and 8%, respectively.

These leather 55% are used for shoemaking, 21% for furniture and cars, 15% for clothing and gloves, and 9% for other uses.

In 2006, the output of China's raw materials reached 539 thousand, weighing 1868 kiloton, ranking first in the world, followed by India and the United States, with 378 thousand and 339 thousand.

Due to the growing consumption of beef in China, the supply of raw materials will also increase, but at present there is not enough equipment to handle all raw materials made in China.

Two. The impact of REACH regulations on China's leather industry. The REACH code is entitled "chemical registration, assessment, licensing and restriction bill".

It will replace the EU's directive and regulations on chemicals, such as the classification, packaging and labelling instructions of hazardous substances, and so on. It will require registration, assessment and licensing of all chemicals in the European Union market and entering the EU market and implement safety monitoring. 40.

Registration (Registration): for the widely used and newly invented chemicals, the manufacturer or importer is required to submit the relevant information to the REACH central database as long as the output or import volume exceeds 1 tons.

Assessment (Evaluation): the competent authority carefully evaluates the registration information of all chemicals that yield more than 100 tons, especially under special circumstances.

Permission (Authorization): the government authorities shall give specific authorization to their use according to a specific purpose, corresponding to substances or components that cause great concern, such as carcinogenesis, induced gene mutation or chemical substances harmful to reproduction.

The impact of REACH regulations on China's leather industry is inevitable because every EU commodity must be exported to the EU.

REACH regulations may lead to a reduction in available tannery materials; chemical plants will encourage customers to use chemicals more carefully; retailers will pay more attention to the commodities they are handling; European law will require distributors to check the safety of products and keep records.

Retailers in the EU are no longer just focusing on the quality of goods. They may also care about whether they are genuine leather.

Does it have good average quality?

Is it worth the money?

Can the product be used normally and ensure safety?

Are slaughtering animals standardized?

Do workers have good treatment?

Will it have adverse effects on the environment?

And so on.

For example, in addition to materials made from animal skins that are smooth and pliable after tannins and dehairs, for example, the "British standard" "2780" specifies that the film thickness of leather is less than 0.15 millimeters.

Whether the product is regulated is related to the safety of products, that is, the content of restricted chemicals.

There are now clearly specified chemicals: Six valent chromium, formaldehyde, azo dyes, pentachlorophenol PCP, cadmium, graphite, mercury, nickel, TBT, NPEO, phthalate esters, insecticides, flame retardants and so on.

For example, the use of six valent chromium must be lower than 3ppm, although formaldehyde has no uniform standard at present, each country has its own standards: Japan's 13ppm, Mercedes8ppm, OkeTex75ppm, children's shoes 75ppm.

Nonylphenol polyoxyethylene is prescribed in Europe. "If the waste after tanning is discharged, the dosage in the preparation should not exceed 0.1%".

In order to prevent the occurrence of problems related to restricted substances, enterprises must have clear and necessary requirements, understand the requirements prescribed by regulations and customers, and select chemicals and their suppliers according to the relevant requirements.

Three, new changes in the leather industry, though the REACH regulations will cause a great impact on China's leather chemical industry, leather making, leather products and other industries, in the long run, the REACH regulations actively protect human health and the natural environment is worthy of respect and appreciation.

On chemical raw materials, BASF has a new series of high quality reactive dyes.

And more and more Wuxi products.

Starr is committed to insoluble or low solubility finishing agents, and new water-based paints and polyurethane finishing agents.

And we have seen some encouraging changes in the development of the industry: chemical enterprises have realized that helping customers reduce environmental pollution is much better than being forced to stop production by the government. Therefore, many chemical plants have begun to focus on services and encourage tanneries to use chemical raw materials correctly, which will help tanning enterprises to improve tanning technology and reduce waste.

Four, the future development trend of China's leather industry believes that in the near future, the environmental protection standards of the Chinese central government will bring greater pressure to the enterprises. Retailers and brand enterprises will choose long-term cooperative suppliers and require them to test and report before shipment. In international trade, they will be under the pressure of price competition from Vietnam, Bangladesh and India, and exporters will still find new markets in Japan and Europe.

In order to integrate with the international market, China's raw material production needs a selection process based on weight, growth period and sex. In the future, anti-corrosion technology needs to be further improved. For development, it may be bundled with meat processing business. After a long time, due to the lack of equal weight control in non intensive animal husbandry, the value of China's raw materials can not be compared with that of the United States, Europe and Australia.

The development trend of China's leather industry will develop in the following aspects: tannery will pfer production to Vietnam, and possibly to India and Bangladesh; it is necessary to learn the technology of exhaust treatment as soon as possible; the reuse rate of water and chemicals will be higher and higher; because of overproduction, China's domestic competition will become more intense; cost control and skilled workers will become more and more important.

Leather is a renewable resource, and it is still a symbol of "upscale". However, we still need to see that leather is being competed by synthetic leather, artificial leather, imitation leather, textile and other materials. We have to redouble our efforts to promote the continuous development of the leather industry and constantly introduce new products so as to get the favor of consumers.

That is to say, there is no bad news, only good news!