1. Trading offer & request

At this moment there are two OFFERS for 4500 tons of malt and one request for 300 tons of barley on the trading portal www.e-malt.com

• Offer for 1250-3000 mtons of malt, 6RW Esterel, crop 2002, bulk, delivery 1/5/2003 - 31/8/2003, at EUR 290.00 /mton, CIF St. Petersburg. (to see and make a bid to the malt offer, please click here to view code MF2504P1100)
  
  
• Offer for 1-1500 mtons of malt, 2RS Scarlet/ Aspen 50/50, crop 2003, bulk, delivery 1/10/2003 - 31/3/2004, at EUR 285.00 /mton, FOB Antwerp. (to see and make a bid to the malt offer, please click here to view code MF2504P1105)
  
  
• Request for 300 mtons of Barley, 2RS Scarlet, crop 2003, bulk, delivery 1/10/2003 - 31/12/2003, at EUR 135.00 /mton, Price basis July 2003, FOB Creil. (to see and make a bid to the barley request, please click here to view code BR2504P1119)
  
  

 Top Industry News 

• Led by continued strong growth in its domestic beer operations, Anheuser-Busch Cos., Inc., achieved record first-quarter sales and earnings ... Click here
  
  
• The world's fifth largest brewer, Brazilian top beverage company, AmBev, is to renew its R$200m buyback programme of common and preferred shares ... Click here
  
  
• Beer production in the Czech Republic increased by 1.5% in 2002 versus 2001 year and reached the value of 18.18 million hl Click here
  
  
• Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) has announced that it is to sell one of its subdivisions in Ukraine, malt-house Slavutsky ... Click here
  
  
• Russian malting company OAO “Russky solod”, a subsidiary of Avangard bank has announced recently about allotting a place ... Click here
  
  
• China imported 1.23 million tons of malting barley from July 2002 to February 2003 Click here
  
  
• Kenya Maltings Limited (KML) says it is unable to buy more barley from contracted farmers due to an over-supply of the crop in the last two seasons ... Click here
  
  
• In 2003 USDA will plant barley for about 2.177 million ha, 6 % more than last year ... Click here
  
  

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

• The Beer Institute and several other brewing community organisations in the US are lobbying hard to have the federal excise tax, on average at USD 0.33 per six-pack, halved ...more info



• The Austrian leading brewery, BBAG, has denied reports in the press that it was close to sealing a deal, which would see Heineken take a stake in the company ...more info



• CHINA: During a conference on the barleys of brewery, France Export Cereals put forward the quality of the French barleys and offered to any malt factory, which ...more info



• Grupo Modelo, the Mexican largest brewer, partly owned by Anheuser-Busch, has posted flat net profit in the first quarter 2003 ...more info



• The re-emergence of takeover speculation sent the shares of the Austrian brewers BBAG and Brau Union to record highs on April 22, 2003 ...more info



• The Germans beer consumption in 2003 is forecasted to drop by 10%, versus to the same figures last year, the association of German beer brewers ...more info



• Group ONA (ex-Omnium Nord-Africain), based in Morocco, has reported that it had sold its activities in beers, fizzy drinks and distribution to Brasseries et Glacières Internationales ...more info



• Russian brewer OAO Vena, based in St. Petersburg city has registered good results for the first quarter of the current year, according to Russian Beer Union ...more info



• Russian brewing plant Ochakovo has reported 2% production increase for the first quarter of the current year in comparison with the same period last year ...more info



• Bamberg, Germany. April 20, 2003. The Weyermann Malting Company announced that it has already signed contracts for more than half of its anticipated requirements for raw summer barley from the 2003 ha ...more info




2. Brewery News

Led by continued strong growth in its domestic beer operations, Anheuser-Busch Cos., Inc., achieved record first-quarter sales and earnings, it was announced today by Patrick Stokes, president and chief executive officer of the company. Stokes made the announcement at the company’s annual meeting of shareholders in Orlando, Florida. Consolidated net sales increased 4.6 percent in the first quarter, while earnings per share increased 11.8 percent. "Anheuser-Busch had another very good quarter and continued its track record of delivering consistent and dependable earnings growth. The company has now achieved 18 consecutive quarters of solid double-digit earnings per share growth,” said Stokes...more info

The world's fifth largest brewer, Brazilian top beverage company, AmBev, is to renew its R$200m buyback programme of common and preferred shares announced on January 23, 2003. The current program is valid for another period of 90 days, said AmBev. “Should the total amount used to acquire shares be below the established limit over the next 90 days, the Board of Directors may continue to renew the buyback program for successive 90-day periods,” according to a company’s statement. “Over the next 90 days, AmBev may repurchase up to 239,384,641 common shares and 1,635,896,173 preferred shares, representing 6.65% and 7.67% of the respective free float in each class (i.e. 3,601,645,480 common shares and 21,331,530,445 preferred shares). Since January 23, 2003 the company acquired 238,995,371 shares totaling R$115 million.”...more info

Beer production in the Czech Republic increased by 1.5% in 2002 versus 2001 year and reached the value of 18.18 million hl, according to Czech Brewery and Malthouse Association. Czech beer exports increased by 6.5% up to 1.98 million hl. Germany took 31% of the export total, followed by Slovakia and the UK. Czech brewery Plzensky Pradroj, which is owned by SABMiller and produces Pilsner Urquell, is still the top producer with 5.2 million hl. Radegast, also controlled by SABmiller, was second producing 2.1 million hl. Interbrew's Staropramen came in the third with 1.25 million hl produced.

3. Malt News

Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) has announced that it is to sell one of its subdivisions in Ukraine, malt-house Slavutsky. Slavutsky is the largest malt-house in Ukraine with planned production capacity of 80 thousand tons per year. In 2002 Slavutsky registered a profit of 1.9 million Ukraine Hryvnias (1 UAH = 0.1754 EUR). The main reason of selling the malt-house is the intention of BBH to concentrate the company’s power on its major activity – production and selling the nonalcoholic beer, said P. Peretiatiko, General Director of BBH Group in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the malt-house selling will allow BBH to obtain extra funds to invest in building new brewery in Kiev. According to sources, five foreign companies, related to malting business, and two big financial and industrial groups from Ukraine and Russia have already made their offers for participation in the tender.

Russian malting company OAO “Russky solod”, a subsidiary of Avangard bank has announced recently about allotting a place for building its third malting plant, which will be constructed in Orlovsk Region this summer. It is expected the new plant will process up to 130 thousand tons of barley and will have a production capacity of 100 thousand tons of malt per year. The project costs are accounted at $30 million. Avangard bank plans to invest about US$ 100 million in building malting plants in Russia. The bank plans to construct three malting plants by the end of 2004 with the whole production capacity of 300 thousand tons per year. According to analysts, these projects will allow to provide Russian brewers with 30% of malt. Russian brewers need about 1.1 - 1.2 million tons of malt per year. The construction of the first malting plant of “Russky solod” in Moscow Region has been finished. The construction of the second plant has recently begun in Voronezh Region.

4. Barley News

China imported 1.23 million tons of malting barley from July 2002 to February 2003: from Australia 953 thousand tons, from Canada 82 thousand tons. Imports for the grain year 2002/2003 may end up below 2 million tons, although EU deliveries should run up to 600 thousand tons in the next few months. Large new malting facilities should increase import volumes in future years. The Chinese administration seems finally to promote barley cultivation, and brewers and maltsters try to work with low-quality local barley already this year. But it seems excluded that China will become a genuine malting barley country, as other crops are more profitable for China’s farmers.

Kenya Maltings Limited (KML) says it is unable to buy more barley from contracted farmers due to an over-supply of the crop in the last two seasons, according to East Africa’s Financial Standards. Kenya Maltings Managing Director Andrew Joyce said the firm has been hit by an over-supply of the crop, forcing it to reduce the number of farmers contracted to plant barley this coming season. He said contrary to a story published in the East African Standard recently, KML was not shunning small-scale farmers. "Kenya Maltings is not contracting only large-scale farmers because approximately 45 per cent of farmers planting barley this coming season will be small-scale," he added. The firm spends an average of over Sh1.2 billion annually in the barley scheme through direct payments to farmers and transporters. The decision to reduce the acreage under the crop is expected to hit farmers hard...more info

In 2003 USDA will plant barley for about 2.177 million ha, 6 % more than last year. The only real increase in a single state is in North Dakota, where 160 thousand ha or 25 % more will be planted than last year. Figures of all other states are almost unchanged, e.g. in Montana and Idaho. The weather pattern looks too dry in Montana and other parts of the Pacific Northwest, somewhat better in the Midwest.