China: Kingway Brewery Holdings Ltd aims to boost sales 43% in 2007

China's Kingway Brewery Holdings Ltd. aims to sell over 1 million tonnes of beer in 2007, a 43 percent increase from previous projections for this year, its chairman said, Reuters reported May 26.

Kingway, a major brewery in affluent southern China, previously set a target for sales of 700,000 tonnes of beer this year.

But it could exceed that target, Ye Xuquan told Reuters in a telephone interview from the northern city of Tianjin, where he presided over the opening of a new plant with annual capacity of 200,000 tonnes.

"Sales next year could well exceed 1 million tonnes," Ye said.

Kingway, in which Heineken N.V. owns about a fifth, has been expanding aggressively, with overall capacity now topping 1 million tonnes.

That could increase to over 1.4 million tonnes next year as two additional new plants in the southwest and northwest become operational, he said.