CCU, Chile's largest brewer, said it would invest $120 million in 2007 to increase production capacity to meet strong demand in Chile and Argentina, Reuters reported April 19.

"We're making these investments to grow in beer in Chile, in bottled water, fruit juices, pisco and beer in Argentina, in all our products," CEO Patricio Jottar said on the sidelines of a shareholders' meeting.

CCU produces most of the best-selling beer brands in Chile including Cristal, Heineken, Escudo and Kunstmann.

The company is the second-biggest brewer in Argentina.

CCU's sales volume rose 7.7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2007.

Diageo PLC and SABMiller PLC, two of the world's most powerful drinks companies, have held detailed talks about breaking up Scottish & Newcastle PLC, the British brewer, reports the Financial Times, according to AFX News Limited, April 23.

The FT says work on the takeover, which was being actively discussed as recently as the end of last month, centred on a plan for SAB to bid about 710 pence a share for S&N, or just over 9 bln stg, including debt.

However, the report adds that the move appears to have been disrupted by the rise in S&N's share price over the past month, with takeover speculation pushing it above 600 pence at one stage.

The deal would have seen Diageo buying S&N's UK beer business, which includes names such as Foster's, John Smith's and Strongbow cider, as well as Newcastle Brown Ale.

S&N's Kronenbourg interests in France would have been sold off, possibly to a private equity buyer, while SAB would have retained control of S&N's other international assets, such as a big stake in United Breweries, the Indian brewer, and Chongqing of China.

Maltsters are short of barley and brewers short of malt of the crop 2006. The industry needs to cover a 13 months demand from the coming crop. One month additional malt demand in the EU is 500.000 tons. Irrespective of the barley S/D of 2007/08, the malt balance looks very tight anyway.

Most German estimates of the spring barley acreage are smaller than Coceral’s figure, on average 510 – 515,000 tons. Coceral’s forecast of the total barley crop is 59.0 million tonnes, of which 30.6 million tonnes spring barley, only a small increase from last year.

The final crop figure and especially the selection of malting barley will depend entirely on the growing and harvesting season. No EU countries will have a sizeable export surplus of malting barley, but the total import needs of the Mediterranean and Central/East European countries can vary between 400 and 800,000 tonnes, depending on their own crop results.