SABMiller plc published an updated report on its performance during the six-month period ended September, 30 (which is the first half of its financial year) on October, 14.

According to the brewing giant, a 3% growth was recorded in lager with organic lager volumes marginally ahead of the prior year (up 1% in the second quarter). This reflects a high comparable (organic lager growth of 9%) and moderating consumer demand in many markets. Group revenue growth has been assisted by firm pricing, with revenue per hl at constant exchange rates growing in excess of 5%, and this has continued to offset the impact of higher input costs, the company said.

As it was reported, financial performance for the six months was in line with the group’s expectations, benefiting from generally favourable exchange rates when compared with the prior year, whilst on an underlying basis slower volumes have constrained profit growth. Deteriorating global economic conditions, weakening consumer demand and volatile exchange rates make the prospects for the rest of the financial year increasingly uncertain.

In Latin America, lager volumes grew by 3%. Lager volumes in Colombia were 3% below the prior year, showing some improvement in the trend recently, although high consumer lending rates ...More Info

InBev‘s previously announced rights offering will be postponed until market conditions stabilize, the brewer posted on its official website on October, 14.

The company said the decision was taken as a consequence of unprecedented volatility in the global capital markets, particularly during the last week.

The Board of Directors will continue to monitor market conditions to determine the appropriate time to launch the rights offering, it was announced.

The company reaffirmed its expectation that it will complete the acquisition of Anheuser- Busch by year-end 2008 following approval by Anheuser-Busch shareholders and receipt of remaining regulatory approvals. The decision to postpone the equity offering will not affect completion of the combination with Anheuser-Busch, it said.

InBev also reconfirmed the strong support of its bank group, who has provided the financing for the transaction on the basis of certain funds commitments and complete loan documentation for both the USD45 billion acquisition facility and the USD9.8 billion equity bridge facility. The equity bridge facility has a postclosing maturity of six months, within which period InBev may tap the equity markets at any time.

Carlos Brito, InBev CEO said: " We are moving forward confidently and expect to complete the combination of the two great companies by the ...More Info

As the Australian Foster’s is reportedly preparing its takeover defences, analysts are making suggestions on who would be interested in the company’s beer business, the Financial Times posted on October, 13.

"Wine has always been the poison pill so its sale or demerger would liberate the beer business," a person close to the situation said.

Analysts estimate Foster's beer assets could be worth close to A$12bn (US$7.8bn). SABMiller, the London-based brewer, is a strong contender to bid for the beer brands if they come on to the market.

The brewer, which already owns the Foster's brand in India and has a joint venture with Foster's to brew and sell the brand in the US, is understood to be seriously interested in buying its rival's beer assets, which include upmarket brands such as Cascade and Crown Lager as well as mainstream brands Victoria Bitter and Carlton Draught.

SABMiller already has a presence in Australia via its joint venture with Coca-Cola Pacific Ventures, which is building a brewery on the country's east coast.

The venture sells SABMiller's international brands, including Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Pilsner Urquell and Miller Genuine Draft, and last year bought Bluetongue, a boutique brewery.

JPMorgan says Australia is one of the most profitable large beer ...More Info

Japan’s brewer Suntory, which was ranked third for the first time in beer shipments in H1 2008, took a 12.9% share between January and September, the Mainichi Daily News communicated on October, 11.

Thus, the company increased its lead over fourth-ranked Sapporo Breweries by 1.1 points.

According to a report published at the end of last week by Japan's major breweries, Suntory is almost certain to secure the No. 3 spot in the annual ranking as well, shipping out 3.94 million cases more than Sapporo.

Japan’s breweries started raising prices from February due to rising raw material costs, but Suntory managed to increase sales by pushing back a price hike until the end of August, the market's peak season. Suntory shipped out 45.54 million cases between January and September, a 13.5 percent increase over the previous year. Shipments of Suntory's third-category beer -- relatively cheaper than beer and low-malt beer -- increased by 38.9 percent over 2007, significantly boosting its total, it is reported.

Meanwhile, Sapporo remained at an 11.8 percent share after shipping out 41.6 million cases, a 9.7 percent decrease from the previous year, due to the poor sales of its low-sugar beer released in February this year. Not planning to release ...More Info

Kenya’s Keroche Breweries is preparing to challenge the might of East African Breweries (EABL) when it launches its new beers later this month, Reuters published on October, 12.

The brewery hopes to tap a spring of consumer patriotism among a growing middle class in east Africa's largest economy, though it knows it will have to take on one of the world’s largest alcoholic drinks group - Britain's Diageo Plc.

EABL, a Nairobi bourse blue chip and east Africa's second largest company by market capitalization, is majority-owned by Diageo, maker of Guinness, a beer popular across Africa.

Multinationals like Diageo and London-based SABMiller dominate Africa's drinks industry, leaving local brewers with small niches in a market where consumption is growing as prosperity swells the ranks of the middle class.

Diageo and SABMiller went head to head in Kenya in the late 1990s in what became known as the Beer Wars.

Castle Breweries, an SABMiller subsidiary, closed its Kenyan operation after four years in 2002, citing high import duties as a sign of local hostility. The multinationals agreed a geographical carve-up to stem costs, leaving EABL dominant in Kenya and SABMiller in neighboring Tanzania.

Many Kenyans stuck by EABL because it has a minority Kenyan shareholding. Its ...More Info

Russia’s Baltika Brewery has started shipments of beer from its Novosibirsk plant to Kazakhstan, the company reported on October, 13.

As it was announced, the export agreement includes such brands as Baltika #3, Baltika #5, Baltika #7, Baltika Cooler and Baltika LITE.

According to the official information, Kazakh consumers are to receive more than 50 goods vans with beer. The delivery is to be carried out by Baltika’s own railway cars. The company noted that the use of new logistics schemes will significantly reduce cost of transport.

In Kazakhstan, Baltika is cooperating with such major distributing companies as Farvater, INTER-PIVO, Craft-2, and others.

Of the annual malt demand, 60 – 70% are traded under long-term agreements (LTA’s), experts informed earlier this month admitting it has become rather difficult to report on malt markets.

According to industry participants, the large international brewing corporations, Inbev, Anheuser Busch, SAB Miller, Carlsberg, Heineken cover most of their demand by LTA’s, buying the open price barley part fairly regularly during the year. Many medium-size brewers purchase part of their demand with LTA’s.

Most LTA’s are thought to run until 2011, experts report.

According to analysts, there remains very little open demand for malt in the EU, Africa, Japan and Venezuela. Open markets are the U.K., Russia, Southeast Asia, Brazil.

EU maltsters are very well sold for crop 2008, delivery 2009. They must refuse to offer to late buyers, experts say.

According to reports, U.K. maltsters have reserved the necessary volume for their domestic customers. Russia will be self-sufficient, but purchase some lots from neighbouring Finland and China. Brazil will cover around 800,000 tons of their total demand of 1.1 mln tons inside Mercosur, from their own maltsters, Uruguay and Argentina.

The Southeast Asian market will be covered mainly from Australia and China. World supplies would be insufficient without the Chinese sales. That country ...More Info

The US 2008 barley harvest is almost 92 percent complete nationwide. Even though North Dakota crop conditions are quite variable, the crop ended up being slightly larger than what was expected, which is putting downward pressure on the prices for both feed and malting barley, Farm & Ranch Guide reported on October, 10.

“Crop conditions were quite variable,” said Steve Edwardson, executive administrator of the North Dakota Barley Council. “Some areas in western North Dakota experienced yields too low to justify harvesting, largely due to drought conditions. However, yields in eastern North Dakota were better than expected, thus contributing to higher than expected production for the state in 2008.”

The Small Grains Summary Report, which was released by the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service on Sept. 30, indicated 3,767,000 acres of barley were harvested in the nation, which is a 7 percent increase from 2007. North Dakota growers harvested 1,540,000 acres, which is a jump of 10 percent of the July 2008 estimate. In 2007, North Dakota farmers harvested 1,390,000 acres.

Harvested acres remained the same in Minnesota when comparing this year to last year with 110,000 acres while Montana's harvested acreage increased slightly in 2008 to 740,000 acres versus 720,000 acres last ...More Info

The CWB released its mid-month barley Pool Return Outlook (PRO) for the 2008/09 crop year on October, 9.

According to the Board’s outlook, malting barley values are down C$8 a tonne from the September, 25 PRO and feed barley values have declined by C$22 a tonne.

The price for feed barley was set at C$198 per tonne by the Mid-October PRO (C$220 in September).

Two-row malting barley price is C$327 (C$335 in September), and six-row malting barley value is C$307 this month (C$315 in September).

Commenting on the established feed barley values, the CWB posted:

“A further decline in U.S. corn futures during the past two weeks has largely reflected the weakening global price outlook for feed grains. Export competition from European and Black Sea regions continues to pressure prices. An improved outlook for Australian production, coupled with limited nearby global demand, has put further downward pressure on feed barley values. Expectations for the Australian barley crop and competitive impacts in key Japanese and Middle East markets has resulted in a significant decline in the tradable export feed barley outlook.

Ocean freight rates are a particularly important variable in international feed barley markets and the dramatic changes in these rates have the potential to change ...More Info

Muntons Malt Supply Chain is a new company set up to bring barley growers closer to brewers and distillers, Farmers Weekly posted on October, 9.

This is a collaborative business for the delivery of long-term (five-year) barley contracts and the development of a new 24,000t storage complex at Bridlington, Yorkshire, sources reported.

The scheme involves such companies as Grainfarmers, Grain Co, Centaur Grain and Muntons, as well as some of the company’s largest brewers and distillers, including Carlsberg UK, InBev UK, Angus Dundee, Inver House Distillers, Joseph Holt, and Diageo.

Through the co-ops, growers can sign up to branded contracts, specific to individual end-user requirements. Prices were set at a fixed premium over feed, with quality bonuses and potential to lock into futures prices, said Guy Newsam of Muntons.

"The new intake facility - which opens next year - will allow growers to move all their barley to us at harvest, reducing their need to dry and store grain and cutting the risk of spoilage," he said. "But the key thing is that it's about making the supply chain work better."

The English Farming and Food Partnership (EFFP) brokered the deal, which should give farmers more confidence about growing malting barley, EFFP's Paul Rhodes ...More Info

The continuing drought reduces the confidence in production and the trade of grain. Despite some small tonnages committed during the year, forward sales of grain have been minimal this year, the Australian Weekly Times published on October, 8.

According to market participants, new crop feed barley prices were back AU$10 last week to AU$240 delivered port.

The declining production of malting barley has left malting barley prices unchanged at AU$345 port.

Old crop feed barley prices were also down AU$35 to AU$310 delivered Melbourne. Traders say that little volume is trading and growers are cleaning up stocks ahead of the harvest.

A. Iwami, B. G. Osborne, H.-N. Huynh, R. S. Anderssen, I. J. Wesley, Y. Kajiwara, H. Takashita1 and T. Omori

Abstract

J. Inst. Brew. 111(2), 181–189, 2005 The selection of grain that is optimum for barley Shochu is not straightforward. Usually malting barley is used, but not all malting barley samples perform well in Shochu production. In addition there is a genotype ? environment effect, so that a given variety may perform satisfactorily in one environment but not another. Therefore a method for testing samples for Shochu is required. This group has previously reported on the evaluation of barley for Shochu production using the Single Kernel Characterization System (SKCS) and demonstrated a significant correlation between the SKCS Hardness Index and pearling performance. The Hardness Index values are multivariate statistical predictions derived from an incremental change analysis of the crush-response profiles. In the present study, a detailed analysis was performed of the averaged SKCS Crush-Response Profiles of barley, obtained when measuring the SKCS Hardness Index. It was concluded that the morphological differences between averaged barley SKCS Crush-Response Profiles appear to allow barley varieties to be classified into four distinct classes. In addition, the elastic response to the crushing on the SKCS device of the aleurone layers of barley kernels yields a useful predictor of pearling quality /performance. Key words: Aleurone layers, barley, crush-response profiles, hardness, pearling, shochu, SKCS. Load full article, 9 pages, 749 Kb, PDF file