1. Trading offer & request

At this moment there are two OFFERS for 4000 tons of malt on the trading portal www.e-malt.com

• Offer for 1-2000 mtons of malt, 2RS Prestige, crop 2003, bulk, delivery 1/1/2004 - 31/7/2004, at EUR 265.00/mton, FOB Antwerp. (to see and make a bid to the malt offer, please click here to view code MF2410P1647)
  
  
• Offer for 1-2000 mtons of malt, 2RS Scarlet, crop 2003, bulk, delivery 1/2/2004 - 31/3/2004, at EUR 262.00/mton, FOB Antwerp. (to see and make a bid to the malt offer, please click here to view code MF2410P1646)
  
  

 Top Industry News 

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

• The growth rate of the Russian beer market, one of the fastest in the world, is reaching its saturation, according to a report of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Sevices Agency ...more info



• India: Two new barley varieties have been identified for cultivation in different zones and agro-climatic conditions of India, The Ministry of Agriculture of India reported ...more info



• Danish beer maker, Bryggerigruppen, announced on October 27 that it has acquired a 51% stake in distributor Impec Holding SAS for EUR 3.5 million ...more info



• Interbrew, the Belgian beer maker, announced on October 27 that it successfully completed a USD 850 million private placement ...more info



• Holsten Brauerei, German brewing giant, saw its share price fall on October 27 according to the local newspapers. The company’s major shareholder Christian Eisenbeiss was struggling ...more info



• Foster's Group Ltd, Australian beer and wine maker said on October 27 that strong domestic beer sales were offsetting poor conditions in North America ...more info




2. Brewery News

Ama, Nigeria: President Olusegun Obasanjo opened on October 24 the largest brewery in Africa, a €220 million (R1.8 billion) plant financed by the Dutch beer giant Heineken, Business Report posted on October 27. Despite the recent return of Sharia Islamic law to 12 of Nigeria's 36 states, the country's market remains thirsty for beer and the government sees increased local production as a key growth factor. Obasanjo said Nigerian Breweries' latest plant was proof that his "effort to revamp the economy and attract foreign investors was yielding good results". "We are committed and determined to encourage inflow of foreign investments," he said at the opening in Ama, near the southeastern city of Enugu. Nigerian Breweries was established in 1946, and now has six plants. It is a subsidiary of Heineken International, which holds a 54 % stake, and serves a vast market of 126 million Nigerians. Nigerian Breweries is the most capitalised company in Nigeria, with a market capitalisation of more than 200 billion naira (R10.3 billion). Nigerian Breweries' managing director, Festus Odimegwu, said completion of the brewery in 14 months was a "veritable reflection of our status as a forerunner in cutting edge technology". Obasanjo earlier encouraged local brewers by banning imported beer, but many companies won waivers to this rule, including Heineken, and international brands are still available...more info

Interbrew, the Belgian brewing giant, announced on October 28 that its trading data for the first nine months show continued, solid organic growth, despite negative currency impact. Compared to nine-month trading figures from 2002, organic volume growth was +5.7% up to 73.9 million hl, net turnover +4.3% up to EUR 5,237 million , EBITDA +5% up to EUR 1,120 million and EBIT +6.7% up to EUR 626 million. Third-quarter trading figures illustrate an acceleration of organic growth from that achieved for the first six months of the year. Excellent summer weather helped fuel organic growth throughout Western Europe. In Germany, Beck’s® volume was up +8.3% and Hasseröder® +5.5%. Interbrew also announced its partnership with Spaten during this period, making Interbrew the leading brewer in Germany, and adding to its portfolio the premier brands in the Bavarian and Baden-Wurtenburgg regions. In the UK, Stella Artois® volume was up +13.8% and Tennent’s Lager® +7.6%. Prices continued to be under pressure, both in the on-trade and off-trade segments. Elsewhere, in the Benefralux region, volume grew +2%, and in Italy, Beck’s® performed particularly well, growing three times as fast as the premium segment. In Americas trends which emerged in the first half of the year carried over into the third quarter. In Canada, the beer industry grew by +0.7% in the first nine months, and Interbrew’s market-share performance continued to be good. The strike at the Montreal plant was settled at an estimated cost of 16 million euro, after tax...more info

Polish brewers, including notably Heineken and SABMiller's local units, posted disappointing sales volume growth of 2.8% year-on-year in the third quarter, which is traditionally the industry's best quarter, with sales reaching 8.5 mln hectoliters, Polish beer industry representatives has posted recently , according to Interfax. The quarter left nine-month sales volumes at 21.5 mln hectoliters, or 3.6% higher against a year earlier. "Although the market grew, there is nothing to brag about," said Nico Nusmeier, Heineken-held Zywiec executive and a representative of Browary Polskie, the Polish beer industry grouping. "The growth is much lower than the 7-11% recorded in 2002 and we must remember that the economy is apparently picking up," Nusmeier told reporters. The paltry growth rate means the year-end industry target of 3-5% growth in sales volumes will be hard to achieve, said Danuta Gut, another industry representative. Zywiec, which fights for top spot with SABMiller's Kompania Piwowarska (KP), saw nine-month sales growth of 5% while KP observed flat growth and Carlsberg Okocim, the number three, witnessed 7% growth. Poland's beer industry at least partly blames slow sales on the level of excise tax in Poland and its disparity with the levels of the tax in neighboring countries. Thus, companies continue to call for a reduction, especially in light of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia's entry to the European Union next May. If such a step is not taken, industry reps see a worst-case sales fall of 20% and a resulting loss of 11,000 jobs...more info

China's largest beer maker, Tsingtao Brewery, posted on October 29 a big rebound in third-quarter earnings as a heavy advertising push helped it to recover from the SARS crisis, according to Reuters. Shares in Tsingtao have rallied this week to their highest level in nearly 10 years on optimism over domestic consumption in booming China and anticipation of healthy results. But analysts said investors may start to worry about the company's valuation of roughly 40 times forecast earnings. Tsingtao posted a net profit of 143.58 million yuan (US$17.3 million) for the three months ended in September, a nearly 29-percent rise from 111.46 million yuan in the year-ago quarter, based on Chinese accounting standards. Revenue at the firm founded by Germans in the port city of Qingdao -- it mounted a major ad campaign this summer as part of its 100th anniversary celebrations -- rose nine percent on year to 2.4 billion yuan. Nomura International analyst Phoebe Wong said the fourth quarter is typically a weak one for Tsingtao, and expected insignificant earnings contribution for the final three months of the year. But he said 2004 should be strong. "This year has been disturbed by SARS," said Wong, "Next year, the growth momentum should be better than this year."

3. Malt News

Russia’s flourishing brewing industry has received another boost. Buhler’s malting facility in Voronovo, which processes 100,000 metric tons of barley into malt each year, has now entered the test phase after only five months’ installation time, Beverage Daily reported in a statement. The speedy development has resulted in additional contracts in Russia being awarded to the technology group. Another large-scale project is the development of new malthouse in Voronezh, and the group recently completed a malthouse project in St Petersburg. In addition, this involved handling all the complex permit-obtaining procedures. Buhler has therefore become a major foreign supplier of malthouses to the Russian beer industry, and as such has developed an intimate knowledge of the needs of the local market. The company claims that one of its specialities is knowing how best to achieve a uniform temperature in Russian malthouses...more info

4. Barley News

AWP, Australian Wheat Forecaster Pty Ltd, has increased its forecast for the barley crop in Australia in 2003/04 crop year by 7.8% up to 7.58 million tones. In that way this year Australia will harvest the biggest crop of barley. In 2001/02 crop year, Australia harvested 8.42 million tones of barley.

EU: The premium of malting barley is too low. It is difficult to understand, why the EU industries do not cover their total needs for the crop year. Winter barleys, especially any lots with more than 11,5 % protein, are hardly worthwhile to be selected and screened for malting. Another problem will be that farmers should be disenchanted enough with malting barley prices that they will rethink the planting programs for next year.

European Barley Crops (in 1,000 tonnes)



	WINTER		SPRING		TOTAL
	Crop		Crop		Crop
	2002	2003	2002	2003	2002	2003
Austria	369	320	493	540	862	860
Belgium	296	245	26	25	322	270
Denmark	637	798	3,441	2,915	4,078	3,713
Deutschland	8,265	7,057	2,663	3,626	10,928	10,683
Spain	1,944	1,850	6,389	6,450	8,333	8,300
France	8,102	5,981	2,886	3,841	10,988	9,823
Greece	201	176	-	-	201	176
Ireland	136	133	847	997	983	1,130
Italy	1,190	874	-	-	1,190	874
Luxembourg	36	28	23	26	59	54
Netherlands	16	20	299	351	315	371
Portugal	22	12	-	-	22	12
Suomi Finland	-	-	1,739	1,650	1,739	1,650
Sweden	32	40	1,747	1,470	1,779	1,510
United Kingdom	3,459	2,952	2,733	3,364	6,192	6,316
TOTAL EU	24,705	20,486	23,286	25,255	47,991	45,742

Dear E-malt Reader!

E-malt.com has Trading Online system. The system is to be used for malt/barley trading. One can register a malt/barley offer or a malt/barley request. The registering person could be as a seller/buyer or as an agent for seller/buyer. The User can see information about all active malt/barley offers & requests. If needed the system allows user to buy/sell malt/barley due to reasonable offers/requests. The way to do this is to confirm reasonable transaction. Trading Online rules are available through the Internet in the Trading Online as well as Tutorial (useful for persons who starts the system usage). To visit the E-malt Trading Online first go to the E-malt.com site, then click Trading Online link in the left menu of the e-malt.com home page. For more details please contact info@e-malt.com

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