This situation took its toll on foreign entrants.
Foster’s, for example, sold two out of three of its Chinese breweries in August 1998 due to heavy losses.
Its last brewery, located in Shanghai, was running at a 40 percent utilization rate, suggesting the potential of a full-scale market exit from China.
All top ten brewers in China, representing around 21 percent of market share in 1999, were local companies.
By late 2002, the top ten brewers represented around 40 percent of the market and contained several strategic alliances between local and foreign competitors, such as the Tsingtao … Anheuser-Busch alliance and the South African Breweries … China sources Breweries alliance.