China Is Biggest Beer Producer For Third Consecutive Yr
SHANGHAI (AP)--China will be the world's biggest beer producer in 2004 for the third year running, brewing more than 27 billion liters of the beverage, an industry expert said Wednesday.
This year's output exceeds last year's by about 2 billion liters, or 7.4%, Xiao Derun, director of the beer branch of the China Distillers Association, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency .
Drinkers in China consumed 25 billion liters of beer last year, pushing consumption past the U.S. and into the global top spot for the first time.
Continuing demand pushed pretax profit from beer up 22% to CNY8.72 billion (about $1.05 billion) between January and July, Xiao said.
Xiao credited the increase in production to the purchase and consolidation of small, inefficient breweries by major brands, along with the construction of new breweries and new investment in existing ones.
China's beer market is still dominated by domestic brands such as Tsingtao and Yanjing, but international names such as Budweiser, Suntory, Carlsberg and Fosters also have a major presence in the country
中国将连续第三年成为世界头号啤酒生产国
一位啤酒行业业内专家周三表示，2004年中国将连续第三年成为世界头号啤酒生产国，啤酒产量将达到270亿升。
《新华社》(Xinhua News Agency)援引中国酿酒行业协会(China Distillers Association)啤酒分会理事长肖德润的话称，2004年中国啤酒产量将较上年增加20亿升，即7.4%。
去年中国消费者总计消费了250亿升啤酒，使中国啤酒消费量首次超过美国，位居世界第一。
需求持续增长促使1-7月份中国啤酒产业税前利润增长22%，至人民币87.2亿元（约10.5亿美元）。
肖德润将啤酒产量增长归因于大品牌收购及整合效率较低的小啤酒厂、建设新厂及对现有啤酒厂进行新的资金投入所致。
中国啤酒市场仍由诸如青岛(Tsingtao)及燕京(Yanjing)等国内品牌控制，但像百威(Budweiser)、三得利(Suntory)、嘉士伯(Carlsberg)及Fosters等国际知名品牌也在中国啤酒市场占有一席之地。
