Total shipments of beer and beerlike alcohol in April rose 2.8 percent from a year earlier to 37.24 million cases, marking the first year-on-year gain in two months, top brewers said Tuesday.
Shipments of regular beer increased 3.9 percent from a year before to 18.03 million cases, with robust demand from both restaurants and households, according to data released by the country's five major brewers. Each case holds 20 633-milliliter bottles.
The data, however, showed shipments of "happoshu" low-malt beer fell 6.8 percent to 5.3 million cases, while those of low-cost "third-category" beer were brisk, up 5.5 percent to 13.90 million cases.