Tsingtao Brewery Co, China’s largest brewer, which is part owned by Anheuser-Busch, said yesterday that growth in production had been affected by the outbreak of the SARS virus. The company said output between January and May rose 8% to 1.23m kilolitres from a year ago.
“Since the second half of April, due to the impact of the atypical pneumonia outbreak, the domestic tourism, food and beverage industries saw a severe slide in business which dealt a heavy blow to Tsingtao’s sales,” the company said in a statement.
The slowdown in output growth may mean the company misses its original target for a 21% growth in production this year, although Tsingtao has said earlier that the first quarter was usually a slack season.
