Most analysts seem to believe that once AB-InBev takes over SABMiller, it will have to sell SABMiller’s 49 percent stake in Chinese brewer CR Snow to appease China’s regulators. Combined, AB-InBev and CR Snow would hold a 38 percent market share. SABMiller, through CR Snow, holds a 23 percent share, while AB-InBev has a 15 percent share.

Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) may reclaim its title as Australia’s biggest brewer in the event of a successful takeover of SABMiller by AB-InBev.

With Brazil and Russia in recession and India not yet living up to its promises, is the fall of China a timely reminder that emerging markets are, well, a risky investment? Many wonder these days: is China going to be the new Russia for global brewers? In retrospect, will 2013 be the last year before things took a turn to the worse? In 2014, China’s beer market shrank to 492 million hl. This translates into a loss of 14 million hl over 2013, says the beer economist Germain Hansmaennel.

What’s going on in China? Last year’s 1.8 percent dip in beer sales could have been a one-off as many blamed it on poor weather. In fact it was the first year-on-year decline since beer sales statistics became available in 1998.

Having found out that shipping beer to Asia and Australia is challenging, Brooklyn Brewery first tied up with the Hitachino Brewery in Japan to contract brew Brooklyn Lager for them.

Once Australia’s top-selling beer, Foster’s Lager can now be found on tap in just ten bars and pubs scattered across the country: three in the state of Queensland, two in New South Wales, three in Victoria and two in Western Australia.

It’s how you see it. The volume of beer produced in China decreased in 2014 for the first time in 24 years, falling by 2.7 percent to 490 million hl, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics.

A planning application for an AUD 60 million (USD 48 million) upgrade at its Adelaide site was made to the relevant authorities by Coopers Brewery in April 2015. The upgrade includes installation of a malting plant and infrastructure to improve access for the trucks using the site each day.

Carlsberg opened its first beer production plant in Myanmar, Asian media reported on 8 May 2015, thus leapfrogging Heineken, which announced its own venture around the same time as Carlsberg did.

The number of breweries and brewing companies operating in Australia is increasing significantly. Although consumption of beer is declining on a per capita basis, the Craft Beer Industry Association of Australia (CBIA) said in April 2015 that there are now about 270 breweries in Australia, a number approaching the previous high of about 300, reached at the end of the 19th century.