1. Trading offer & request

At this moment there is one OFFER for 5000 tons of malt on the trading portal www.e-malt.com

• Offer for 1-5000 mtons of malt, 2RS Scarlet, crop 2003, bulk, delivery 1/1/2004 - 31/3/2004, at EUR 271.50/mton, FOB Antwerp. (to see and make a bid to the malt offer, please click here to view code MF2409P0957)
  
  

 Top Industry News 

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

• Rabo Securities has upgraded Heineken, the Netherlands-based brewing group, from "neutral" to "outperform". However, Rabo has reiterated its "neutral" rating for the Belgian brewer, Interbrew ...more info



• The CEO of Diageo Company, Paul Walsh, announced the possibility of extending the company's relationship with the Dutch brewer Heineken ...more info



• Munich, Germany: Thousands of beer drinkers from around the world, came to Munich on a sunny Saturday for the largest and most famous beer festival on earth, the Oktoberfest ...more info



• The Philippine government has told San Miguel Corp to allow the state an additional 5% stake in Southeast Asia's largest food and beverage firm, a senior official said on September 22 ...more info



• The Dutch brewing giant Heineken plans to control 15 % of the Russian beer market, newspaper Vedomosti reported in a statement on September 17. Now Heineken holds below 6% of that market. ...more info




2. Brewery News

Danish brewing force, Carlsberg Breweries, announced on September 22 that it had made an offer for the Serbian brewery Pivara Celarevo A.D. The deal values EUR 53 million. At a general assembly held on 22 September 2003, the shareholders of the Serbian brewery Pivara Celarevo A.D. have decided to carry through a direct placing of shares, which will provide Carlsberg Breweries A/S with 51 % of the shares in Pivara Celarevo. Subsequently, Carlsberg Breweries must make a public tender for the remaining 49 % of the shares in Pivara Celarevo. The price per share is EUR 43.12/DKK 320, which gives a total price of the entire share capital of EUR 53 million/DKK 394 million. The transaction is subject to a due diligence process which starts immediately and to approval by authorities. The share capital is owned by approx. 1,200 shareholders, primarily private individuals out of whom approx. 75 % are employed by Pivara Celarevo, which is the third largest brewery in Serbia. The brewery is situated in the town of Celarevo in the Vojvodina province about 130 kilometres north of the capital Beograd and its only brand Lav (means lion) is the second strongest standard brand in the country. The brewery has a capacity of 1.3 million hl beer. In 2002, Pivara Celarevo had a turnover of EUR 23 million/DKK171 million, an operating profit (based on local accounting principles) of EUR 5.6 million/DKK 42 million and sold 780,000 hl beer, corresponding to a market share of about 15 %...more info

Russia's brewing giant, Baltika, announced on September 23 that by the end of September it would ship its first lot of kosher beer to Israel, following the long-term agreement signed between OAO Baltika and Israel brewing company IBB Ltd. Baltika said in a press release that Israeli border guards made last checks at the Baltika plant on September 23, just before the first shipment was to depart. "The conclusion of the contract became possible largely due to the certification of conformity with Kashruth accorded to Baltika beer by the Israeli rabbinate after successfully passing through the approval process in early 2003," Baltika said. "By receiving the designation 'Kosher', Baltika beer is now able to redirect its sales activities in Israel beyond the narrow confines of the Russian-speaking immigrant niche market to the broader population of Israeli consumers." Ten of Baltika's 11 brands have been certified as kosher, the exception being its "Jubilee" brew, the brewer's press service said. The planed volumes to be sold to Israel are 2 million litres per year. 1.3 million litres of beer were sold to Israel last year and 0.77 million litres in the first nine months of the current year. Baltika is jointly controlled by Carlsberg and Scottish & Newcastle. In July Baltika sent its first consignment of non-alcoholic beer to Iran. Baltika is Russia's most export-oriented brewer and took its first step in the Middle East when it started selling to Iran, where alcohol sales are strictly forbidden.

The Czechs are the biggest beer drinkers on earth, as beer costs less than bottled water or Coca-Cola. The nation that gave the world the term "pilsner" beer from the western Czech city of Pilsen, brews well-known beers such as Budvar Budweiser and Pilsner Urquell, Reuters said in a statement. Beer is not only cheap, the Czechs say it is also very good. About 10 million Czechs on average drink 160 litres per head per year -- that's nearly half a litre for every man, woman and child every day. But one thing that Czechs do not want is to pay more for the nation's favourite drink. The problem for the biggest Czech brewer, Plzensky Prazdroj, which is owned by the world's number two brewer SABMiller Plc, is how to get people to pay more for their famous brews and make its brewing more profitable, Reuters said. The country is a key area for the brewer of Castle and Miller beers -- the fifth largest national profit earner after South Africa, the U.S., China and Poland. Its managing director, Steve Woodward, admits that the Czechs have little capacity to be able to drink more beer and expects the 16-million-hectolitre market to contract in volume terms by one percent a year. "We've got good beer, low prices and no inclination for the consumer to pay more. Brewers here mess with the beer price at their peril," said Woodward on Friday at the Pilsen brewery, some 120 kilometres west of Prague and one of its three breweries. Woodward's plan is to increase revenues 3% a year by raising market share and boosting exports...more info

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said on September 22 it assigned its 'BBB+' ratings to Canadian brewer Molson Inc.'s proposed C$200 million 2005 floating rate notes, according to a Reuters statement. Molson is issuing the notes to replace an existing C$300 million fully drawn bridge facility that matures Sept. 17, 2003, with the C$100 million difference to be drawn from the existing C$625 million three-year facility that matures March 17, 2005. At the same time, the 'BBB+' long-term corporate credit rating was affirmed. The outlook is negative. "The ratings reflect Molson's healthy Canadian market position, underlying strength in operating results, and significant debt reduction since the 2002 acquisition of Brazilian brewer Cervejarias Kaiser S.A. (Kaiser)," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Don Povilaitis. These factors are offset by cash flow measures that are slightly below established parameters for the current ratings category and Brazilian operations' contribution that is prone to volatility...more info

3. Malt News

Ukraine imported about 8.5 thousand tonnes of malt in August this year, that is 30% less then in July when Ukraine imported 12.1 thousand tonnes of malt, according to the information given by OOO “Agrarika”. The decline is attributed to the seasonal decreasing in beer production. Ukraine is mainly supplied with malt from Slovakia and Austria. In January-August Ukraine imported around 40 thousand tonnes of malt, 96% of which is barley malt. According to Ukrpivo, in order to supply the Ukrainian breweries with malt Ukraine has to import approx. 150 thousand tonnes of malt per year.

One of the biggest Russian breweries, ZAO Ochakovo, based in Moscow, has announced recently about the completion of building its own malting plant in Lipetsk region, which will entirely cover the brewery needs in malt, Russian media reported. The new malting plant, which was built in two years, will be launched on September 24. The production capacity is to be 100 thousand tonnes per year that constitutes 10% of Russian malt market. The new malting plant will consume about 140 thousand tonnes of malting barley per annum. According to Ochakovo analysts, the malting plant in Lipetsk will have a payback time of 5 years. Ochakovo brewery invested about US$50 million in the plant.

4. Barley News

European Barley crops (in thousand tonnes)



	Acreage		Crop
	2002	2003	2002	2003
Austria	217	211	862	900
Belgium	43	40	322	270
Denmark *	830	714	4,078	3,713
Deutschland *	1,970	2,087	10,928	10,683
Spain	3,105	3,039	8,333	8,450
France *	1,643	1,730	10,988	10,034
Greece	105	100	201	176
Ireland	174	171	983	975
Italy *	343	309	1,190	1,060
Luxembourg	10	10	59	54
Netherlands *	57	56	315	371
Portugal	20	10	22	12
Suomi Finland *	522	530	1,739	1,699
Sweden *	417	367	1,779	1,510
United Kingdom	1,066	1,076	6,192	6,160
TOTAL EU	10,522	10,450	47,991	46,067
Czech *	488	550	1,792	2,090
Hungary *	384	342	1,103	892
Poland *	1,100	1,100	3,300	2,650
Slovakia *	225	270	855	828
Romania	296	-	689	500
Bulgaria	300	284	1,000	400
Turkey	-	7,400	-	7,000
Russia	10,267	-	18,688	15,500
Ukraine	4,287	5,012	9,828	7,500


The figures, with a star behind the country, are official, but nevertheless provisional.  In the EU no official figures are available for Spain and the U.K., East European figures are vague. Barley harvest is not finished yet in Finland and in Russia (only 30-35%). Very poor harvest weather may reduce the Russian number further.  Wide differences of estimates exist in Spain, Poland, Turkey and even in Germany, where the Farmers Assn. estimates the barley crop 1.2 million tonnes lower than the Ministry.

In 2002/03 Japan was the third largest barley importer in the world. Barley imports are still highly regulated by the Japanese government. Importers must be licensed, and they are allocated amounts to import each year. However, a more competitive system of import has recently been introduced under the Simultaneous Buy and Sell (SBS) tenders, which have led to greater competition between importers, and purchases from origins other than the established supply sources (Australia, USA and Canada). According to analysts’s forecasts, Japan will import about 2.2 million tones of barley in 2003/2004 versus 1.9 million tonnes in 2002/2003.

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