TOKYO, April 12 (Kyodo) — Total shipments of beer and beer-like drinks in Japan fell 10.9 percent from a year earlier to 33.34 million cases in March, industry data showed Tuesday as brewers struggle with damage to their plants and power outages caused by the massive quake and tsunami last month.
This marked the third largest decline for March since 1992 when comparable data became available, while the shipment volume was the second lowest level, following the record low marked in 2008 when Kirin Brewery Co. and Asahi Brewers Ltd. hiked beer prices, according to data released by the nation's top five brewers. One case of beer holds 20 633-milliliter bottles.
The drop is also attributable to a reduction in consumption due to a downturn in consumer confidence and the holding of fewer drinking parties in consideration for people hit by the catastrophic quake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan on March 11.
The breweries are expected to log large year-on-year losses on shipments in and after April as Kirin and Asahi factories in quake-hit Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, and Motomiya, Fukushima Prefecture, respectively, have no prospect of resuming operations.
Total shipments from January to March went down 1.1 percent to a new record low of 85.14 million cases for the three-month period.
Asahi returned to the top of the rankings for the first time in three years with a market share of 39.0 percent, followed by Kirin, which slipped from the top with a 35.2 percent share.
Suntory Liquors Ltd. came third with a 13.8 percent share, followed by Sapporo Breweries Ltd. with an 11.1 percent share, while Okinawa Prefecture-based Orion Breweries Ltd. brought up the rear with a 0.9 percent share.