E-Malt.com newsletter - August 19

1. Industry news

The Danish brewing group, Carlsberg, said it intends to expand its operations in Europe, and now is considering making acquisition in Spain and Portugal. The range of acquisitions is planned to be around $660 million to $1.32 billion. In recent years, Carlsberg has expanded its influence in Eastern European markets, investing in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Croatia and even Russia with its joint venture Baltic Beverage Holding (BBH).

After a five-year legal battle with the Canadian beer producer, Moosehead Brewers, The Grand Teton Brewing Co., the Wyoming brewer, is to cease the production of its Moose Juice Stout brand. In June, US Trademark Appeals Board cancelled the approval for the trademark received by the company in 1992. Charlie Otto, Grand Teton’s founder said: "I never dreamt it was possible. I believed that if you were issued a US trademark it was yours. We build our company on the assumption that once a mark was issued you had the freedom and go-ahead to grow that brand." Now the company will focus on its new beer brands, the recently introduced Sweetgrass India Pale Ale and a new Extra Special Bitter which is scheduled to be launched later in the year.

The biggest Japanese beer group, Asahi Breweries Ltd, is in negotiation with privately-owned regional brewer, Orion Beer Co., to acquire a 10% share, as reported by Japanese business daily, Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The deal would make Asahi the largest individual shareholder in Okinawa-based Orion. Asahi and Orion have been discussing a possible strategic alliance since last year. According to the report, the companies believe the deal between Asahi and Orion would facilitate cooperation in product development, production and marketing of both beer and happoshu. In terms of scale, Orion is dwarfed by the mighty Asahi, with its sales representing a domestic market share of around 0.7%.

Yarpivo, one of Russian top five beer makers, is intending to purchase Voronezh Brewery, Olga Belyusova, Yarpivo’s economics director, reported to the Russian press on August 15. At the moment Yarpivo owns 8% of Voronezh Brewery. Baltic Beverage Holdings (BHH), a co-owner of Yarpivo, controls 69.2% of the Voronezh plant and has invested US$5 million in its first phase of reconstruction. So, the deal will be concluded between Yarpivo and its co-owner BHH. Analysts predicts that the brewery will brew 40 million liters of beer this year and 60 million liters next year.

The Chinese biggest brewer, Tsingtao, expects net profits to more than double for the first nine month of the current year compared to last year, a report form Datamonitor.com reveals. According to the same report, the company has registered for the first half of 2002 a net profit rise of 64% to $13.7 million and a sales rise of 30.5% year-on-year. The company’s output increased by 27% to 1.525 million tonnes. Tsingtao was founded in 1903 by German interests, and its major shareholder with about 45% of shares, the Chinese government. Since 1997 Tsingtao has purchased 40 breweries, many of them loss making, and the company faces a constant challenge to integrate them and realize cost savings and expand its margins. Although the company has not specified any figures, July news is, that Tsingtao is in talks with the world’s biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch, which has helped fuel a rise in its stock price over 60% in the past year. Anheuser is thought to be considering boosting its 4.5% stake in the company to around 25%.

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

2. Malt markets and prices.

As every year at the moment of the barley harvest, malt markets are quiet, awaiting the results of the harvest. In the EU, France and Denmark have harvested under good conditions, quality and quantity are satisfactory, but the UK and Germany seem a little under pressure due to large quantities of their spring barleys still standing on the fields, partly being said to be unusable for malting purposes, caused by the wet and unstable weather. Adding the news of bad crops in Canada and Australia, the market reacts very strongly, the malting barley prices are up! This will surely have an effect future malt prices as well. EU Malt quotations are higher, but so far no business reported. Australian malt prices, which we had quoted at USD 245/250 two weeks ago, need to be corrected, apparently this business to Asia had been concluded at around USD 260. Today, Australia is asking for USD 275 fob.

Theoretical malt prices are available on site www.e-malt.com

3. Malting barley prices, French barley prices. All prices are nominal, our quotes reflect recent business done and asking prices.

EURO = USD 0.9792 August 21, 2002
Crop year		2002
Parity		FOB Creil
Position		July 2002
Type	Variety	EURO	USD
2RS	Prisma	nq	nq
2RS	Scarlett	129.00	126.50
2RS	Aspen	128.00	125.50
2RS	Optic	127.00	124.50
2RS	Nevada	125.00	122.50
2RS	Astoria	124.00	121.50
2RS	Cork	124.00	121.50
6RW	Esterel	109.00	107.00
6RW	Maeva	nq	nq

If you have any comments, questions, suggestions or remarks, you can send a mail to info@e-malt.com

If you have received this newsletter by a colleague, you can obtain your own free subscription at
http://e-malt.com/en_account_subscriber.htm

If you do not wish to receive our newsletter, please unsubscribe from our mailing list using unsubscribe form from our site!