1. Trading offer & request

At this moment there is one OFFER for 2000 tons of malt on the trading portal www.e-malt.com

• Offer for 1000-2000 mtons of malt, 6RW Esterel, crop 2002, bulk, delivery 1/5/2003 - 31/7/2003, at EUR 271.00 /mton, FOB Antwerp. (to see and make a bid to the malt offer, please click here to view code MF1804P1353)
  
  

 Top Industry News 

• The Belgian brewing force, Interbrew, announced on April 18 the closing of its acquisition of K.K. Brewery ... Click here
  
  
• The Turkish company Efes Breweries International (EBI) plans to acquire a large Serbian brewer Pancevo in May this year ... Click here
  
  
• The brewing community in the United States contributes with US$ 144 billion each year to the country's economy ... Click here
  
  
• The Boston Beer Company, Inc. announced first quarter 2003 volume, revenue and earnings compared to the first quarter 2002 ... Click here
  
  
• In former years there was a clear split-up between domestic and international malt sales campaign. ... Click here
  
  
• Ukraine: Mukachevo brewery started up new malt-house in February. Equipment from Germany was used for this malt-house ... Click here
  
  
• Poland planted 4,4 million ha grains, 10 % less than last year. Crops suffered from winterkill Click here
  
  
• Estimates of winterkill in Russia are 15-20 %, which looks low in comparison with the Ukraine ... Click here
  
  
• Russia plans to output about 1.4 million tons of malting barley by 2005 year. That figure twice exceeds the one of 2002 ... Click here
  
  

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

• Plans to place a 6% levy on beer sold in Vermont, USA, are currently being discussed to raise more money for substance abuse programmes ...more info



• WASHINGTON, DC - Efforts to rollback the Federal excise tax on beer continue to gain momentum in Congress ...more info



• The Dutch brewer, Royal Grolsch N.V., plans to appoint Messrs. A.J. Pasman and R. Snel as members of its Executive Board on 2 September 2003 ...more info



• A director of the Aston Manor Brewery in Birmingham, Great Britain, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to contaminate rival HP Bulmer's products with yeast ...more info



• The fourth largest Chinese brewer, Harbin Brewery, has posted a 33.6% rise of profit for 2002 year versus the previous year up to HK$108.76m ...more info



• The brewers of the Republic of Moldova produced about 43.8 million litres of beer in 2002, local press writes. 73% of the local beer market is held by Vitanta-Intravest, recently bought by Efes ...more info



• The British chancellor Gordon Brown's plans to raise beer taxes in Britain by a penny a pint, announced in the budget speech, has outraged the British beer industry ...more info



• The Danish Ministry of Taxation is considering slashing the current packaging levy on beer and other beverages after estimating that a 40% cut could give the Danish state an income of DKK 20m ...more info



• Together with Carlsberg Tetley and Hardy's & Hansons, CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale) will launch a campaign to promote Mild ale ...more info



• Pernod Ricard, the French drinks group, has reported that it has sold its stake in the former Seagram-Kirin joint venture, Kirin Distillery ...more info



• Brau Union, part of Austrian drinks group BBAG, said it is to cease production at its brewery in Innsbruck in western Austria in August, switching to its Wieselburg site in North-Eastern Austria ...more info




2. Brewery News

The Belgian brewing force, Interbrew, announced on April 18 the closing of its acquisition of K.K. Brewery. Interbrew pays USD 35 million cash for a 70% stake of the brewing operations of the Chinese K.K. Group. The transaction corresponds to a 7.2x EBITDA multiple. The K.K. Brewery, located in the city of Ningbo (the second largest harbour of china, after Shanghai), is the leading brewer in the Province of Zhejiang. This transaction reinforces Interbrew's commitment to play a leading role in the consolidation of the beer market in China's Yangtze Delta region. K.K. Brewery is a leading brewer in the Province of Zhejiang and has a strong presence in the city of Ningbo, where it has an 80% market share. It operates two breweries and a bottling line in the Yangtze Delta. The 2002 volume of K.K. Brewery was 2.5 million Hl. Its main brands are K (King beer) and Zizhulin, the leading standard lagers, and K.K. and one week, the premium brands...more info

The Turkish company Efes Breweries International (EBI) plans to acquire a large Serbian brewer Pancevo in May this year. “The new owners will start the activity with the Russian brand “Stary melnik”, Russian newspaper “Vedomosti” reported. Russia is the fifth world largest beer maker. However, Russian brands are not sold abroad except “Tolstiak”, which is output in Ukraine by SUN Interbrew and “Stary melnik”, which is output in Kazakhstan by EBI. The output of “Stary melnik” in Serbia will be the first attempt to produce the Russian brand out of CIS. Pancevo is situated 20 km beside Belgrade. The company produces about 50 million litres of beer per year and controls 10% of Serbian beer market. After acquiring Pancevo EBI plans to invest some more US$10 million in equipment and will start the output of “Stary melnik” in August-September.

The brewing community in the United States contributes with US$ 144 billion each year to the country's economy. 1.6 million direct and indirect jobs are created by the brewing industry, and wages alone to the workers amount to US$ 48 billion per year. These are some of the findings of a new report issued by the Beer Institute industry trade group and the National Beer Wholesalers Association in the US, Realbeer.com reports. Tax revenues on federal and state level, generated by the brewing industry, amount to US$ 27.6 billion per year, the report adds.

The Boston Beer Company, Inc. announced first quarter 2003 volume, revenue and earnings compared to the first quarter 2002. “For the 13-week period ended March 29, 2003, The Boston Beer Company recorded net sales of $45.3 million, a 0.7% decline from the 1st quarter in 2002. Net revenue per barrel increased by 1.1% during the quarter due to product mix changes and normal price increases. As reflected on the following chart, reported sales volume for the period was 270,000 barrels, a 1.8% decline from prior year,” the company reported. The Boston Beer Company recorded a net loss of ($109,000) or ($.01) per diluted share for the quarter versus net income of $1.3 million and $.08 per diluted share for the same period last year. Gross margins as a percent of net sales were 58.6% as compared to 59.5% in the prior year first quarter...more info

3. Malt News

In former years there was a clear split-up between domestic and international malt sales campaign. EU brewers except for the British purchased their malt up to 6 to 8 months ahead of harvest, in order to be assured of price levels, prepare production schedules and budget. In international markets, however, action had to wait for publication of EU export restitutions. As the EU exported 50-60 % of the world volume, even East European and overseas maltsters waited to know the restitution before entering markets.

Ukraine: Mukachevo brewery started up new malt-house in February. Equipment from Germany was used for this malt-house. The output of the malt-house is 7-8 thousand tons of light (pilsner) malt per year. Only Ukrainian barley is used on this plant. The main customers are: Lvivska Brewery (BBH), Sarmat, other small breweries. Moreover, Mukachevo brewery is the only producer in Ukraine of caramel malt with the capacity of 2 thousand tons per year. Mukachevo brewery is located in Western Ukraine (Mukachevo city, Transcarpathian region). It stopped beer production 15 year ago and redirected to only malt production.

4. Barley News

Poland planted 4,4 million ha grains, 10 % less than last year. Crops suffered from winterkill. As per press reports there are problems as well in the Czech Republic, Serbia, Romania. The Romanian government suggested to farmers to grow less barley in favour of higher value crops. And in Hungary it was recommended to plant maize instead of barley, as the planting season is late this year. It is especially dangerous for the quality of malting barley, if seeding is followed too fast by warm and dry summer weather

Estimates of winterkill in Russia are 15-20 %, which looks low in comparison with the Ukraine. Total grain crop estimates range from 70 to 75 Mill. tons versus 86,5 last year. Exports for the crop year 2002/2003 are estimated at 10,7 Mill. tons by the IGC, incl. 3 Mill. tons of barley. Moscow claims that export volumes of crop 2003 will be maintained fully at last year’s level. Imports of malting barley July-January 2002/2003 dropped to 63.000 tons from 100.000 tons a year earlier, showing slow, but constant improvements of the Russian malting barley supply.

Russia plans to output about 1.4 million tons of malting barley by 2005 year. That figure twice exceeds the one of 2002. The information is given by the Ministry of Agriculture of Russian Federation under the branch target program “Brewer’s barley and malt”. The reason of developing the mentioned program is the barley grown in Russia, which quantity and quality don’t satisfy the modern brewing branch. Because of low quality of barley Russian breweries have to import about 50% of malt. “Starting with 2001 year the import of malt became stable,” Russian media said. However, the prices are growing. In Russia in 2002 a ton of malt after customs clearance cost US$266 that is 38.5% more than the same price in 1999 year. Russian malt is 30% cheaper than imported one. So the national agro-industrial complex loses at least US$116 million per year. The brewers overpay US$35 million. “That is the price of a malting plant.”...more info