Tsingtao Brewery Co, China's second biggest brewer, plans to build its first overseas plant in Thailand to boost sales to the international market.
The company said in a statement yesterday it is involved in a joint with an unnamed Thai partner. The facility will have an annual capacity of 80,000 kiloliters of beer.
Tsingtao will hold a 40 percent stake in the new venture, with registered capital of 100 million yuan.
The first phase of the project will cost 294 million yuan and will have a production capacity of 40,000 kiloliters of beer a year.
Wang Yiguo is analyst at China Jianyin Investment Securities.
"This is a good project for the company to target beer drinkers in Southeast Asia. Thailand is the right place for beer companies to build factories because it has great potential as a beer market.”
"The Thailand project is an important step in our global strategy," said Yuan Lu, board secretary of Tsingtao.
Tsingtao is 27 percent-owned by Anheuser-Busch Co. It set up a Thai marketing branch in Bangkok initially in July, 2005, according to Yuan.
But due to Thailand’s stiff duty on beer imports, Tsingtao's sales in the country remain a small part of the company's total.
Yuan said "Producing beer locally will help Tsingtao avoid a 3 percent duty, reduce sales costs and boost the company's competitiveness on the international market," He added that the Thai government supports the new project.
（英语点津 Celene 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Jonathan Stewart is a media and journalism expert from the United States with four years of experience as a writer and instructor. He accepted a foreign expert position with chinadaily.com.cn in June 2007 following the completion of his Master of Arts degree in International Relations and Comparative Politics.
