Foreign beer company giants are looking to increase their market share in the country’s growing beer market as new players enter the fray.

While SABMiller, Carlsberg and Heineken have been operating in the country for some time, a new player, the Germany-based Bitburger Group, plans to open a brewery.

The Bitburger Goup last month launched its beer brand in the Vietnam market through its exclusive distributor, the Kinh Bac Investment and Trade Joint-Stock Company.

The Group is expected to build a brewery in Vietnam , Michael Meinardus, sales and marketing director of Bitburger, has said.

Carlsberg, the Danish beer company, owns 16 percent of the shares in the Hanoi Beer and Beverage Corporation (Habeco), and expected to acquire more shares of Habeco, Nguyen Van Viet, Habeco’s general director, has said.

Carlsberg and Habeco each hold a 45 percent stake in the Hanoi-Vung Tau Brewery Company.

Last June the company began construction of a 42 million USD brewery in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau .

The factory, which will have an annual capacity of 50 million litres in the first phase, and double that in the second phase, will supply Carlsberg and Hanoi beer to the southern market.

The Sai Gon Beverage Corporation (Sabeco), the country’s largest brewer, has yet to select a strategic partner among the foreign brewers seeking to forge a partnership, including Dutch beer giant Heineken, US-based Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc, Belgian brewer InBev, Thai company Beverage and the Japanese-based Asahi Breweries Ltd./.