1. Trading offer & request

At this moment there is one OFFER for 10000 tons of malt and one REQUEST for 260 tons of barley on the trading portal www.e-malt.com

• Offer for 5000-10000 mtons of malt, 6RW, crop 2003, bulk, delivery 1/1/2004 - 31/8/2004, at EUR 282.00 /mton, CIF St. Petersburg. (to see and make a bid to the malt offer, please click here to view code MF3005P1340)
  
  
• Request for 260 mtons of barley, Any 2RS or 2RW, crop 2003, bulk, delivery 1/10/2003 - 31/1/2004, at USD 180.00 /mton, C&F by sea Karachi. (to see and make a bid to the barley request, please click here to view code BR2105P1456)
  
  

 Top Industry News 

• Czech Brewery Plzensky Prazdroj, a unit of SABMiller plc plans to increase beer production to 5 million hl by 2006 from current 2 million hl Click here
  
  
• Beer consumption in Bulgaria in April 2003 reached the value of 31.4 million litres the fugure nearly equal to the consumption for the whole first quarter of 2003 ... Click here
  
  
• Baltika Brewery announced the opening of its first office in Ukraine follows similar new ventures in the former Soviet Union republics of Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Kazakhstan ... Click here
  
  
• The 2002 crop malt market is now virtually concluded, some small interest remains for specific destinations in small volumes Click here
  
  
• Food group Greencore has reported a 9% increase in pre-tax profits, before exceptional items, to €31.1m for the six months to March 28. The malt division increased its profitability Click here
  
  
• In United Kingdom the spring malting barley was planted in February and March a little later than is ideal ... Click here
  
  
• In Belgium the French Spring barley area is reported higher by up to 10%, which should be good news for prices ... Click here
  
  

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

• Belgian brewing force Interbrew SA, plans to continue focusing on its cache of some 200 domestic brands in the 120 countries ...more info



• The Russian Brewers' Union reported on May 28 that the country's major beer producers OAO Baltika Brewery, ZAO Ochakovo and ZAO Vena filed a suit to the Moscow Court of Arbitration against tax authorities for publicly advocating an excise duty hike on beer ...more info



• “Vietnam will stop issuing new joint ventures licenses for beer production while existing foreign-back breweries are running at under 80% capacity,” Vietnam Prime Minister has recently decided ...more info



• Miller Brewing announced on May 28 the departure of Gary Booher, senior vice president of human resources, who took this position in 1995 ...more info



• Anheuser-Busch, brewer of Budweiser, announced on May 28th that it had successfully enforced its rights to the Budweiser trademark in Nigeria, securing the company's right to use the name in that country ...more info



• Beer consumption per capita in the Netherlands fell in 2002 to 79.2 litres, versu 80.5 litres in 2001, the Dutch central brewing agency reported in a statement ...more info



• Karan Bilimoria, the Hyderabad based Indian beer maker, plans to export cobra beer to India, the USA and South Africa in a big way ...more info



• Japanese brewing force Asahi Breweries Beer Co announced that it would be delisted from the first section of the Nagoya Stock Exchange ...more info



• Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), the investment bank, has cut its rating on the Dutch beer maker, Heineken, from "neutral" to "underperform" ...more info



• Bryggerigruppen, the Danish beer maker, has reported a net loss of EUR 5.1 million for the first three months of 2003, against a net loss of EUR 1.5 million for the same period 2001 ...more info



• Lehman Brothers, the investment bank, has reduced its rating on the world's second-largest brewing force, SABMiller, from "equal weight" to "underweight" ...more info



• The Croatia’s beer maker, Karlovacka Pivovara, has posted a net profit of CK26.03m (€3.5m) for 2002, versus a net profit of CK32.3m €4.3 million in 2001 ...more info



• The German bank, HypoVereinsbank (HVB), has signalled it is about to sell its 55 % stake in Brau und Brunnen after all ...more info




2. Brewery News

Czech Brewery Plzensky Prazdroj, a unit of SABMiller plc plans to increase beer production to 5 million hl by 2006 from current 2 million hl. The first stage of its expansion will cost 300 million crowns. Plzensky Prazdroj began the reconstruction and expansion of the Pilsner Urquell brewhouse in the Plzen brewery. The company has decided to make this investment in relation to its strategic objective, which is to increase the Pilsner Urquell beer production several times over by 2010 so that this brand, the flagship of the entire SABMiller global group, can rank among the five greatest premium brands in the world. An investment of almost CZK 300 million will enable the annual production of up to 3 million hectolitres of Pilsner Urquell beer. The entire project is divided into four stages spanning three years. The first two are planned for the period ending in May 2004...more info

Beer consumption in Bulgaria in April 2003 reached the value of 31.4 million litres the fugure nearly equal to the consumption for the whole first quarter of 2003 (31.8 million litres). Bulgarian analysts attributed the increase with the warmer weather. “Pessimistic forecasts of stagnation in the branch in the first quarter of 2003, when beer consumption had dropped by 15% year-on-year, are replaced with optimistic expectations for an increase of several percent,” experts said. The top position is occupied by Zagorka brewery, owned by Brewinvest, a joint venture between Greece's Hellenic Bottling and Dutch brewing group Heineken NV. Zagorka brewery sold 26.345 million litres of bee and produced 26.042 million litres. Kamenitza brewery, owned by Belgian beer company Interbrew, produced the largest quantity of beer, 30.9 million litres, but sold 24.717 million liters. Bulgarians have drunk some 75 million litres of beer from January to April 2003.

Baltika Brewery announced the opening of its first office in Ukraine follows similar new ventures in the former Soviet Union republics of Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Kazakhstan, Beer Union reported. The company stated such a move was designed to improve exports. The former Soviet republics represent a good alternative to the Russian market, which fell 5% in the first quarter of the year. The republics have sizable populations and a cultural affinity with Russia which assists marketing. The Ukrainian market, with a population of 50 million, is currently dominated by Russia's second-largest brewer, Sun Interbrew Ltd., a unit of Belgium's Interbrew SA. Sun Interbrew owes most of its growth in sales volume and profit to Ukraine. Baltika, Russia’s largest brewer, is controlled by Baltic Beverage Holding, a joint venture between Carlsberg AS and Scottish & Newcastle.

3. Malt News

The 2002 crop malt market is now virtually concluded, some small interest remains for specific destinations in small volumes, according to Greencore Malting Group. The 2003 crop market has still to really get going, some traditional business has been concluded in Continental Europe however later than usual and not always for the full 2004 delivery year due to uncertainty over beer sales. Enquiries are in the market and many buyers are studying carefully the movements on the barley market, trade is nominal and therefore values are largely technical, a prolonged dry spell is causing concern over European crop prospects and the extent of winterkill particularly in Eastern Europe. Uncertainty is likely to continue until we see volumes of barley safely gathered in the barn when its quality and yield prospects can be fully evaluated.

Food group Greencore has reported a 9% increase in pre-tax profits, before exceptional items, to €31.1m for the six months to March 28. The malt division increased its profitability, as both malt production and deliveries reached record levels. Five of the division’s eleven plants produced record volumes, including the two largest plants (Bury St Edmunds and Athy). In conjunction with strong cost management, the increased volumes had the effect of reducing overall unit costs for the year. In addition, a successful destocking strategy was introduced, with the average Group stock holding level of 3.3 weeks falling below the target of a maximum of 4 week stock levels. Domestic and export malt margins for the UK operation continued to improve, whilst the rationalization of the branch network and other cost reductions further improved the competitiveness of the Irish business. The year also had the benefit of the first revenues earned by Rusmalt, the joint venture for the supply of management services in the procurement of raw materials and development of capacity and quality enhancement for Sun Interbrew in the Russian market...more info

4. Barley News

In United Kingdom the spring malting barley was planted in February and March a little later than is ideal. All the springs where sown in good conditions with no major interruptions. The area planted is higher than last year by up to 15%. However due to the lack of rain and some severe frosts it is difficult to forecast the outcome yield wise particularly. It is generally assumed that the quality should be good, again like winters disease pressure has been low due to lack of moisture but this could change now that the weather has broken. The major concern is about yield and if the lack of rain has been the cause of lasting damage, again the only sure time to know this is when the combine enters the field.

In Belgium the French Spring barley area is reported higher by up to 10%, which should be good news for prices. However like the rest of Europe the lack of rain has added to the uncertainty in France and the very fact that at the end of April crops are under pressure, it is more difficult to forecast the damage done to Spring crops as the growing period is shorter than in the UK albeit only a few weeks but this could be important in crop stressful year.