Overall beer shipments for Japan’s five top brewers in March plunged 10.9% from a year earlier, their first double-digit decline in 14 months, due to lost output at quake-damaged breweries, according to beer shipment data released Tuesday by the companies.
Domestic beer shipments came to 33.35 million cases. One case is equivalent to 12.66 liters of beer.
The steep decline is due to shutdowns of five breweries damaged by last month’s massive earthquake and tsunami. The data didn’t include shipment data from one of the five plants.
The plant operated by Kirin Holdings Co. (2503) in the city of Sendai has halted operations with four of its 15 large beer storage tanks damaged. Kirin hasn’t yet determined when it will resume operations at the plant.