1. Trading offer & request

At this moment there are two OFFERS for 4250 tons of malt on the trading portal www.e-malt.com

• Offer for 1-3000 mtons of malt, 2RS Scarlet / Aspen, crop 2003, Bulk, delivery 1/11/2003 - 30/6/2004, at EUR 266.50/mton, FOB Antwerp. (to see and make a bid to the malt offer, please click here to view code MF0808P1008)
  
  
• Offer for 1-1250 mtons of malt, 6RW Esterel, crop 2003, Bulk, delivery 1/9/2003 - 30/9/2003, at EUR 250.50/mton, FOB Antwerp. (to see and make a bid to the malt offer, please click here to view code MF0808P1400)
  
  

 Top Industry News 

More news is available on site www.e-malt.com  

• Shares of Lion Nathan Ltd., Australia's second-largest brewer, rose 3 % after it said its Chinese breweries will break even this year, allowing the company to meet its A$180 million ($117 million) ...more info



• The Japanese brewer Asahi Breweries has seen its net profit in the first half of the year fall 23% to ¥8.2 billion (US$66.7m). Tax increases on low-malt beer have been blamed for a fall in sales...more info



• The Russian brewer Baltika failed in its attempt to bring a lawsuit against the country's tax authorities, Baltika said. The Baltika's lawsuit against the tax authorities was trown out by the Court ...more info



• British beer-makers should brew a real ale directed at women, the chairwoman of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) said on August 5...more info



• With the UK launch of Michelob Ultra, Anheuser-Busch is revisiting old ground, Datamonitor reported. The move comes just two years after the brewer pulled Bud lite...more info



• India’s beer maker, United Breweries Ltd, is to acquire a stake in rival company, Herbertsons Limited, according Indian press. A targeted stake is to be bought from Kishore Chhabria...more info



• Namibian Stock Exchange-listed brewer Namibian Breweries (NBS) warned on August 7 that its interim results for the six months ending 31 July 2003 are anticipated to be significantly lower...more info



• Eyre Peninsula barley growers are being offered a range of new malting barley contract choices by AusBulk grain marketing, Australian Ezigrain reported...more info




2. Brewery News

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has made a loan of US$25 million to Efes Brewery, to help the Turkish beer company acquire the Russian brewery Amstar, based in Ural, the Istanbul Stock Exchange announced on August 6. The loan will be offered for six years, said the Russian press. EBRD said that half of its six-year loan to Efes has been syndicated to Abn Amro Bank. Amstar acquisition will make Efes the third largest brewery in Russia, one of the world's fastest growing beer markets. The $25 million loan, half of it syndicated to ABN AMRO Bank, is being funded under a $75 million regional facility the EBRD agreed to provide to the parent company of Efes to back expansion in the EBRD's countries of operation. Moscow Efes Brewery is a subsidiary of Efes Breweries International. Amstar, located in Ufa, has an annual brewing capacity of 1.2 million hectoliters and produces and markets the Sokol brand in the local premium segment, the company said.

Canada's Sleeman Breweries Ltd. posted on August 6 a 56.5% decline of its second-quarter profit and a 16% rise of its revenues. Net profit in the quarter fell to C$2.0 million ($1.4 million), or 13 Canadian cents per share on a diluted basis, compared to C$4.6 million or 29 Canadian cents per share in the same quarter in 2002. The Canadian brewer said last year's profit was higher because of a C$2.8 million after-tax gain from selling a distribution agreement for Beck's beer in Canada. Labatt Breweries of Canada took over the Beck's agreement. The company revenue increased 16 % to a record C$49.9 million in the quarter, and credited higher volumes and a contract to brew beer for Japan's Sapporo brewery. "The integration of Sapporo production into our Guelph plant, along with controlled spending, has helped Sleeman to achieve profitable growth in 2003," said John Sleeman, chairman and chief executive, in a statement...more info

Findland’s Brewer Olvi has posted a 1.2% fall of its net sales for the first half of the year versus the same period last year. The company registered a value of €53.60m for the net sales. Operating profit also decreased 2.6% to €3.82m from €3.92m in the first half of 2002. “Brewer Olvi had seen good performances from its Estonian subsidiary, however this was tempered by the Latvian and Lithuanian subsidiaries which made losses,” said the company. In spite of the results, Olvi was predicting a pick up in the second half of the year, which is traditionally a better period for the company. Sales in the third quarter are estimated to outperform the second quarter, thanks to the long period of hot weather in July. Olvi forecasted the group's full-year results to be flat against 2002 levels.

Chile's leading brewer CCU said on August 6 it reduced its net loss in the second quarter by 65.5 % compared with the same period last year, mainly due to lower income taxes and interest, while operating profit rose, according to Reuters. In a statement, CCU said its April-June net loss was $1.4 million versus a net loss of $4.0 million a year earlier. It attributed the lower income taxes to the absence of the effect of the peso depreciation in the quarter and said the decrease in minority interest payments was a result of lower net income at its winery unit, Vina San Pedro. CCU's revenues rose 10.6 % in the period to $110.4 million due to a 9.1 % higher consolidated volumes and slightly higher average prices for its products. Sales growth was led by beer in Argentina. "In this period, the beer Chile and beer Argentina businesses performed very positively," the company said in a statement. The strong sales, partially offset by higher selling expenses, helped the company report a 3.3 % rise in operating profit to $1.4 million.

3. Malt News

A number of important markets, namely Brazil, Japan, Russia and Venezuela, will probably purchase less malt for 2004, according to analysts research. The reasons are well-known, lower beer output, new malting capacities, bad economies and long-lasting strikes. Other countries, amongst them Thailand and Taiwan, will order larger quantities, but the additional volumes will not bridge the gap between losses and gains.

4. Barley News

Ukrainian yield volume of barley will reach 7 million tonnes this year, according to the Hydrometeorological Service in Ukraine. Last year output of barley crops registered 10.4 million tonnes. The fall was attributed to the unfavorable weather conditions during all the vegetation period – frosts, ice and drought, AgriUkraine agency reported in a statement.

Ukrainian barley yield in 2002 year



	Harvested area, thousand ha	Total yield, thousand tonnes	Yield per ha, tonnes
Winter barley	531.9	1,347.29	2.53
Spring barley	3,620.8	9,016.47	2.49
Total barley (winter & spring)	4,152.7	10,363.76	2.50



The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) expects to export more feed and malting barley in the coming marketing year because of bigger supplies and better markets, its president said August 07. The CWB may export about 500,000 tonnes of feed barley and 2.0 million to 2.5 million tonnes of malting barley in the 2003-2004 shipping year, which runs from August to July, Adrian Measner told reporters at a news conference. "It will be a healthy program and would be a very positive program," Measner said. In 2002-2003, the CWB exported only 9,000 tonnes of feed barley, most to Japan, down from the paltry 24,000 tonnes of exports the previous crop year. The CWB, which has a monopoly on wheat and barley exports from the Canadian Prairies, exported between 300,000 and 450,000 tonnes of malting barley last year, down from 942,000 tonnes the previous year. Its top customers for malting barley were the United States (161,000 tonnes), South Africa (61,000 tonnes), China (45,000 tonnes) and Japan (24,000 tonnes)...more info

Newsletter Links Improvement

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