Tsingtao Brewery’s first-half beer sales volume fell 4.9%

Tsingtao Brewery reported a clear drop in beer sales volume in the first half of 2026, while a stronger contribution from its mid- and high-end products helped limit the decline in revenue and kept profit almost flat.

The company sold 4.50 million kiloliters from January through June, down from 4.732 million kiloliters a year earlier, according to an unaudited company report published Wednesday and cited by Caizhongshe. That was a decline of 232,000 kiloliters, or 4.9%.

Revenue fell 4.1% to 19.65 billion yuan from 20.491 billion yuan a year earlier, a drop of 841 million yuan. The smaller decline in revenue than in physical volume suggests the company made more money per unit sold on average. Based on the reported figures, revenue per kiloliter rose about 0.8% to roughly 4,367 yuan.

That measure does not reflect pricing alone. It also captures changes in promotions and product mix, which mattered in Tsingtao’s results for the period. The company’s main brand was nearly unchanged at 2.708 million kiloliters, only about 5,000 kiloliters below the year-earlier level. At the same time, sales of mid- and high-end products increased 2.6% to 2.044 million kiloliters, or about 52,000 kiloliters more than a year earlier.

The growth in those products increased their weight in the company’s overall volume. Mid- and high-end products accounted for an estimated 45.4% of total sales volume in the first half, up from 42.1% a year earlier. That was an increase of about 3.3 percentage points and points to a continued shift toward higher-value products even as total shipments declined.

Profit showed only modest growth. Attributable net profit rose 0.4% to 3.92 billion yuan. Based on the reported numbers, the company’s net margin improved to about 19.9%, from roughly 19.0% a year earlier, an increase of around 0.9 percentage points.

The figures show a mixed first half for one of China’s largest brewers. Tsingtao lost a significant amount of physical volume, but the decline was partly offset by a richer sales mix and stronger profitability per unit sold. The fact that revenue fell less than volume and profit still edged higher indicates that premiumization and operating efficiency helped cushion the effect of weaker shipments.

The results relate to Tsingtao’s corporate performance in China during the first six months of 2026. They are not market-wide statistics for the Chinese beer industry. The company report cited by Caizhongshe was unaudited, and the revenue-per-kiloliter estimate should be read as a combined effect of price, promotions, and product mix rather than as a pure price indicator.