1. Trading offer & request

At this moment there is one OFFER for 3000 tons of malt on the trading portal www.e-malt.com

• Offer for 1250-3000 mtons of malt, 6RW Esterel, crop 2002, bulk, delivery 1/5/2003 - 31/8/2003, at EUR 289.00 /mton, CIF St. Petersburg. (to see and make a bid to the malt offer, please click here to view code MF2504P1100)
  
  

 Top Industry News 

• The U.S. craft beer industry continued its production growth in 2002 with an increase of 3.4% ... Click here
  
  
• The second largest brewing force in Russia, Belgian holding SUN Interbrew, has merged its four biggest brewing plants ... Click here
  
  
• Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia is forecasting a rise in pretax profits this year after two years of negative profit growth Click here
  
  
• After the disappearance of restitution brewers become very interested to capture the best possible moment for their purchases ... Click here
  
  
• Russian beer output was plus 8.7 % in 2002 (70.25 million hl), but it was plus 16 % in the first half and only plus 2% ... Click here
  
  
• Germany: Winter barley plantings were 1.433 million ha, 5,4 % more than last year Click here
  
  
• Canberra, April 30 (Dow Jones) - An outbreak of wheat streak mosaic virus in Australian grain research facilities likely won't impact commercial production ... Click here
  
  

More news is available on site www.e-malt.com  

• The Board of Scottish & Newcastle ("S&N") published a series of announcements on April 28, 2003. The Group intends to make a full disposal of its Managed Retail business of 1,450 pubs ...more info



• The Russian Brewers Union has sent an open letter to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov asking him to take measures "to normalise" the state tax policy toward the beer industry ...more info



• The Philippine food and drink group, San Miguel, has posted that its beer sales rose 12% in the first quarter of the current year due to the strong demand for its products ...more info



• Aftonbladet, the Swedish top tabloid, has asked two breweries in Sweden to test the levels of alcohol in beers on the Swedish market ...more info



• San Miguel Brewery Hong Kong Ltd announced that its first half net profit will be significantly lower compared with the year-earlier HK$13.134m ...more info



• Rabo Securities’ analysts have cut their rating on the Dutch brewer Heineken from "outperform" to "neutral". The action is attributed to the impact of SARS, the lower dollar and ...more info



• Kenya Breweries is under investigation for fraud and police have been forced to disperse crowds of angry "winners" with teargas after 2,000 people ...more info



• The Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar was stopped using the Budweiser name in Spain under the order issued by Spanish Provincial Court of Appeals ...more info



• The Pennsylvania Beer Wholesalers Association has decided to launch a petition to try to block the plan of the state’s Governor, Ed Rendell, to triple the tax on beer ...more info



• The auction on selling 25.5% shares of the Russian company OAO Patra, Ekaterinburg, appointed for April 25 2003, was declared as missed ...more info



• Tinkoff, the Russian brewery, is trying to rise between $US 5m and US$ 7m by placing a quarter of its shares among portfolio investors ...more info




2. Brewery News

The U.S. craft beer industry continued its production growth in 2002 with an increase of 3.4%, according to figures gathered and released by the Association of Brewers. Growth is measured by numbers of barrels of beer U.S. breweries produced in 2002 (2001 total: 1.2%). “The continued growth trend really speaks to the stability of craft beer in a variety of economic environments it has experienced,“ says Paul Gatza, the director of the Institute for Brewing Studies, a division of the Association of Brewers. In 2002, the craft beer industry produced more than 6.4 million barrels of craft beer in the United States (2001 total: 6.2 million). This 3.4% growth from 2001 means the net volume increase for 2002 was 216,688 barrels. (One barrel = 31 US gallons or 13.78 cases (of 24 12-ounce bottles)). This is the equivalent to nearly 3 million cases of new craft beer sales – bringing the total U.S. craft beer industry annual retail sales value for 2002 to more than $3.8 billion. (2001 total $3.3 billion).



1,409 craft breweries in the U.S. in 2002:

994 brewpubs

369 microbreweries

46 regional specialty breweries

...more info

The second largest brewing force in Russia, Belgian holding SUN Interbrew, has merged its four biggest brewing plants - Klinsky, Kursky, Saransky and Omsky (Rostar) into a subsidiary “United brewing plants”, which will start working in May this year. According to analysts, that will allow SUN Interbrew, which registered losses last year (about US$ 4 million), to achieve expenses optimisation. The subsidiary will be registered in Klin, where the biggest company’s brewery is based. The merging will save SUN Interbrew about US$ 1 million in form of tax payments.

Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia is forecasting a rise in pretax profits this year after two years of negative profit growth, citing Jorgen Bornhoft, Carlsberg Chairman, the Bernama news agency said in a statement. "We are looking at every possibility of an uptrend (in pretax profit) this year," Mr. Bornhoft said in spite of the impact of SARS crisis. “SARS had not resulted in any significant drop in the consumption of its beer products. But on a week-to-week basis for the past few weeks, the company had seen a slight decline in consumption. The concern would grow, though, if SARS continues to spread throughout the year.”

3. Malt News

After the disappearance of restitution brewers become very interested to capture the best possible moment for their purchases or to split the risk by buying parts of their demand at different times. This is very noticeable this year after the steep price increases in September-November of last year. Present prices can still go lower, if there is a perfect combination of positive factors: large malt stocks and good crops. But prices could also turn around fast, if below-average crops are threatening supplies in any of the large barley and malt countries of the world. Crops are not made anywhere yet, and the prospects are particularly uncertain in North America, Australia and Eastern Europe. One important point is the loss of about 500 thousand tons of Esterel barley due to winterkill, compensated by expected larger crops of spring barley. It should lead to a smaller discount of Esterel malt in comparison to prices of spring barley malt.

Russian beer output was plus 8.7 % in 2002 (70.25 million hl), but it was plus 16 % in the first half and only plus 2 % in the second half of the year. In January – March of this year Russian beer sales are estimated to be minus 6 %. Nevertheless Russian brewers are optimistic that sales will recover in summer and the year will end with another, though modest plus. Malt production and imports showed almost equal figures of 550 thousand tons, usage was 1.05 million tons. There will be new malt facilities operational for 240 thousand tons this summer, another 120 thousand tons are confirmed to be ready next year. All these malthouses are being constructed in the black soil regions between Moscow, the Ukrainian border to the South and the Volga River to the East. More construction projects are reported. It is assumed that smaller and older factories, which are running at full capacity at present, will disappear in the years to come. One estimate is that Russian beer output will be 83 million hl by 2006 with malt needs of 1.3-1.4 million tons. Although Russian barley and malt have gained market share, there is still a good demand for foreign malt and malting barley.

4. Barley News

Germany: Winter barley plantings were 1.433 million ha, 5,4 % more than last year. Winterkill is estimated to be around 5%. Spring barley will be seeded on about 670 thousand ha versus 611 thousand a year ago, in Bavaria the plus is estimated at 15 - 20 %. The estimated deficit is 200 thousand tons greater than last campaign, at the halfway mark sales by farmers are only 100 thousand tons less and imports only 58 thousand tons up. But malt production is totally unchanged.

Canberra, April 30 (Dow Jones) - An outbreak of wheat streak mosaic virus in Australian grain research facilities likely won't impact commercial production, Peter McBride, a spokesman for wheat exporter AWB Ltd., said Wednesday. The virus now has been detected in research facilities in Adelaide and Canberra, and were it to become established in Australia this would behoove farmers to manage it, just like they do in the U.S., another major wheat producer and exporter, he said. "At the end of the day we believe it should be managed properly and should have no effect on production," McBride told Dow Jones Newswires. Wheat streak mosaic virus is prevalent in the U.S., Russia, and eastern Europe. It attacks wheat, barley, corn, some grasses, oats and rye, is spread by wheat curl mite, and can cause the death of infected leaves or plants...more info