China: Guangzhou Zhujiang Brewery Co Ltd signed a co-operative contract with Guangzhou Heavy Industrial Group and Guangzhou Light Industrial and Machinery Group on Wednesday to jointly build 10 new fermentation tanks and set up two new production lines - to became Asia's top brewer by volume, China Daily reported on November 14. Each fermentation tank will have a capacity of more than 600 tons; and Zhujiang Brewery's current six production lines will also be renovated and expanded in the near future at a cost of more than 420 million yuan (US$50.6 million).

By 2005, the company will have an annual production capacity of more than 1.5 million tonnes, according to Yang Rongming, chairman of board and general manager of Zhujiang Brewery. By the end of 2010, the annual output will be between 4 million tons and 5 million tons, becoming one of the world's top-10 breweries.

Yang said advanced brewing equipment and technologies will be imported from Germany and Italy next year to help achieve its goal of becoming the No 1 brewery in Asia.

Zhujiang has invested more than 500 million yuan (US$60.24 million) in technological renovation between 1998 and 2003, helping it reach a production capacity of more than one million tons by the end of last month. Its turnover last year was more than 2.8 billion yuan (US$337.35 million) in 2002. Meanwhile, the company will spend more than 13 million yuan (US$1.57 million) to build a beer museum to display its products, production technologies and equipment.

14 November, 2003