Danish brewer Royal Unibrew AS said it has bought Latvia's third-largest brewery Livu Alus for 130 million dkr (about $23 million US), according to AFX News Limited, August 15.

The acquisition, which is subject to approval by relevant authorities, is expected to be finalized at the beginning of the fourth quarter 2007.

Royal Unibrew said the acquisition will have a minor negative effect on its pretax profit in 2007 and 2008 due to market expenses and integration costs, while a positive earnings contribution and key ratios in line with group targets are seen after 2008.

The group said it expects synergies from cooperation between Livu Alus and its existing activities in the Baltic countries, which are identified as a focus area in its "Mach II" strategic plan.

Livu Alus has around 125 employees and posted 2006 net sales of 67 mln dkr (about $12 million US).

Fujian Yanjing Huiquan Brewery Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese beer brewer, said its net profit for the first half of this year was CNY 16.3241 million, soaring 30.71% year on year, The Financial Times Limited reported July 14.

The company's earnings per share reached CNY 0.07 during the period, surgin 40% compared to a year ago.

Yanjing Huiquan (Fuzhou) Brewery Co., Ltd., a 99%-owned subsidiary set up by the Fujian-based beer manufacturer in November 2004, sold a total of 28,300 kiloliters of beer in the first six months of this year, growing 12.46% over the previous year, and achieved net profit of CNY 1.1085 million.

Currently, the company is busy with a series of technology and equipment upgrade projects. The project that changes all the oil-powered boilers into coal-powered boilers has almost been brought to a successful end by the end of June 2007.

Other projects like installation of dust control equipment and other related auxiliary equipment have entered the final stage.

The Confederation of Malaysian Brewers Bhd (CMBB) urged the government not to increase excise duties for beer and stout in the 2008 Budget, but maintain it at its present level, The Star reported August 14.

CMBB executive director Tan Sri Datuk Ajit Singh said the industry has been hit by increases in excise duties over the years.

"The current excise duties for beer and stout in Malaysia are second highest in the world after Norway," he said, adding that the present excise duties level was already high by international standard.

From 1991 until last year, the excise duties have increased by 169%.

"The fear is that if the excise duties continue to increase, it would definitely affect our sustainability and viability of business," he said after launching CMBB's informative website on Tuesday.

"It would have a kind of snow balling effect because if the excise duties increase further, the prices of beer goes up. This will affect our competitiveness, cost of business, sales for contracts and revenue will fall down," he said.

Finnish brewery Olvi Oyj reported a rise in second-quarter profits, helped by growing sales, but warned its July-September earnings may be dented by the rainy and cool midsummer weather, according to Reuters, August 16. Olvi's April-June operating profit rose 30 percent year-on-year to 7.8 million euros ($10.5 million). Sales rose 25 percent to 60.5 million euros.

The company repeated it expects 2007 sales to grow year-on-year, and said operating profit would also be higher than in 2006.

Shares in Olvi were 0.9 percent lower at 25.50 euros by 0719 GMT, compared with 2.4 percent weaker Helsinki bourse general index.

International Grain Council (IGC) estimates the world trade of malt in 2006/07 at 4.6 million tonnes, a small plus from a year earlier. Malt trade figures have not increased very much since a number of years, because new malting capacities in beer producing countries (Russia and China) have absorbed the rising demand.

IGC estimates the world malt consumption at 20.3 million tonnes, of which 19.3 million tonnes for brewing. The figures of our analysts show a malt capacity figure of 19.7 million tonnes, another proof that new capacities are urgently needed.

China’s barley crop will be similar or somewhat smaller than last year’s, market analysts have recently commented in a report.

The South eastern part of the country around Shanghai has produced a large crop, but as usual of mediocre quality. Crops in Xinjiang are good, in Gansu it was too dry in the West, but fine in the East. Further North there are major changes. Farmers in Heilongjiang turned away from barley in favour of more rewarding corn and soybeans, the acreage was halved. But in Inner Mongolia barley acres doubled, soil and climate remind of the Canadian prairies, ideal for barley production. It is forecast that new malting industries may arise in the province.

The agricultural analyst, Strategie Grains, has published its revised estimates on Wednesday, August 16th. The EU total cereal production is now expected to fall 2% from 2006 to 257 million tonnes. This is 13.7 million tonnes down on the July estimate.

The total EU barley crop has been corrected by Strategie Grains to 57.68 million tonnes, 0.5 million tonnes down from July’s estimate. France and Germany show the largest downward revisions from last month but the EU output remains, however, higher than last year’s production of 55.86 million tonnes.

Malting barley quality varies across the EU; with improvement from last season expected in the Northern Europe, around average in France with some concerns with high protein content.