Asia Pacific Brewery’s collaboration with US beer distributor Anheuser-Busch resulted in a 142% growth of Tiger Beer export to the US in the financial year ending September 2006 compared to previous year, Channel NewsAsia announced on January 10.

Asia Pacific Brewery says the tie-up allows it to gain tremendous headway into the huge American beer market.

Tiger Beer is now available in 48 of the 50 US states through a network of 500 wholesalers.

Anheuser-Busch says it is leveraging on Tiger's Asian appeal and tapping into the fashion, food art and music industry for growth. Imported beers made up 12 percent of the total beer sold in the US, and is growing at 7 to 8 percent annually.

United Romania Breweries Bereprod (URBB) has invested nearly $16 mln in 2006, Catalin Ignat, URBB’s marketing vice-president said in an interview to Daily Business on January 10.

The brewing company URBB, the producer of Tuborg and Carlsberg, has invested $4 mil to set up a logistic centre with a surface of 3.5 ha and $11 mln to spread its production capacity.

Another investment has been directed to purchase a CO2 recuperation installation for environment protection, $900 thousand being spent for.

The brewery’s production capacity was of 1.4 mln hl in 2006, with an estimation of 2.3 mln hl by 2011. In 2007 the company expects 1.8 mln hl.

For the first 10 month of 2006 the company’s market share constituted 8.5 pct compared with 6.97 in the same period of 2005. The most appreciated brand is Tuborg with 50 pct of Romanian beer market.

Chongqing Brewery Co Ltd (SHA 600132), Scottish & Newcastle Plc's Chinese partner, said its net profit in 2006 is likely to have risen over 50 pct due to strong sales and tighter cost controls, according to a statement filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, XFN-ASIA reported on January 11.

Chongqing Brewery, which booked 78.83 million yuan ($10.10 million) net profit in 2005, did not give a reason for the robust forecast.

The company, in which Scottish & Newcastle PLC (S&N) holds a 19.51 pct stake, reported net profit of 78.83 mln yuan or 0.31 yuan per share in 2005.

It will release detailed figures in its annual financial report, expected to come out before the end of April. (1 usd = 7.80 yuan)

The Avangard’s purchase of 4 Weissheimer malt houses could make Avangard the 6th biggest world maltster, according to a market report of December 12, 2006.

The purchased lines’ production capacity is of 330.000 tonnes. The transaction price was not revealed. Avangard, through its subsidiary Russky Solod, already owes 3 malt houses in Russia with a capacity of 340.000 tonnes/year as well as one in construction with a capacity of 112.000 tonnes.

Barley is in a special position, as often before, but at price levels hardly ever seen before, analysts commented on December 22. The world crop of 140 Mill. tons differs little from the harvest of 2005/06, but is 14 Mill. tons lower than in 2004/05.

Consumption is expected 9 Mill. tons higher than a year before, because of larger feed use in the EU and CIS. The IGC assumes Saudi Arabia imports of only 5,5 Mill. tons, but the trade anticipates a regular import volume of 6,5 – 7,0 Mill. tons. Therefore the stock change between the crop years could even be more dramatic.