All large international brewing concerns published excellent profit figures for 2005, analyst deducted in a recent report. Nevertheless many of them, being confronted by stagnant or declining beer sales in the developed countries of Western Europe and North America, try to reduce further the cost of their operations.

Outstanding examples are the closure of Carlsberg's original Copenhagen brewhouse and InBev's formation of centralized service offices in Eastern Europe at the expense of hundreds of jobs in the West. Shareholders' satisfaction and with it the defense against take-overs by others or the will to expand have become common place in the brewing industry just as much as in many other industries of the world.

During past years brewers became accustomed to cut rather regularly the cost of their raw material procurement. In the malt sector there were three major reasons for the decline of prices: the power of the mighty brewers against a weak defense of too many and comparatively small maltsters, the overcapacities existing in the malting industries, and last not least, depressed prices of malting barley because of continuously abundant supplies.

Asahi Breweries will invest 4 billion yen (US$36 million; Јб28 million) to build a new plant in China amid intensifying competition in China's beer market, the world's biggest, The China Post posted Sunday, May 14.

The plant, to be built in the southern city of Huzhou in Zhejiang province, will start production in May 2007 with an annual production capacity of 100,000 kiloliters (26 million gallons), Japan's business daily Nihon Keizai said.


That would increase the company's total annual beer production in China by 15 percent to 770,000 kiloliters (200 million gallons), the largest among Japanese breweries in China, the paper said, without citing sources.

Officials at Asahi were not available for comment Sunday.

Asahi, which has the largest share in Japan's beer market, aims to increase beer sales to 740,000 kiloliters (192 million gallons) a year in 2007, up 26 percent from 2005, the paper said.

The paper said that the China's beer market became the world's largest in 2003 surpassing the U.S. and major beer companies such as Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev and American company Anheuser-Busch are expanding businesses in China.

ABB Grain Ltd has release May 16 its reviewed gross barley pool indicators for 2005/2006 and had left its price estimates unchanged.

ABB Grain’s General Manager Marketing, Nigel Officer, said the estimates had remained steady despite recent upward currency movements in the Australian dollar, which had seen it rise to almost 78c against the greenback.

Current gross estimates are as follows:

Victorian and east coast pools - 2005/2006 season
Victorian No. 1 malting (closed October 31) - A$191/tonne
Victorian No.1 feed (closed October 31) - A$168/tonne
East coast (Vic, NSW & Qld) No.2 malting (closed January 24) - A$186/tonne
East coast (Vic, NSW & Qld) No.2 feed (closed January 24) -A$163/tonne
East coast (Vic, NSW & Qld) No.3 malting (opened January 24) - A$168/tonne
East coast (Vic, NSW & Qld) No.3 feed (opened January 24) - A$150/tonne

A $5/t premium also applies to Baudin and Sloop malting varieties for 2005/2006 although this is the last season that premium will apply.