(Yicai Global) Jan. 9 -- Its units at all levels must sell its hallmark Feitian Moutai at CNY1,499 (USD231) per bottle, Chinese distiller Kweichow Moutai Co. said yesterday, adding it plans to up market supply before the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival.

Kweichow Moutai Distillery Co. [SHA:600519], based in Guiyang in Southwest China's Guizhou province, will raise its Moutai prices by an average of 18 percent starting next year, and this may affect its earnings this year, it said Dec. 28. This will be the first official rise in Feitian Moutai's ex-factory price in nearly five years.

The 106-proof (53-percent alcohol) liquor originally cost CNY1,299 per 500-milliliter bottle. Kweichow Moutai Group has instituted a technical upgrade to raise production by 6,600 tons by the end of the 13th five-year period (2016-2020), and thus its annual base liquor production may reach 56,000 tons by 2020, said Li Baofang, the concern's party chief, on Dec. 28. No further production expansion will occur for at least 10 years, in Li's view.

Kweichow Moutai shares – China's most expensive A-share stock -- continued their rally on the news of price hikes and increased production to nudge a record high of CNY756.5 in intraday trading yesterday, closing at CNY752.13, with its market cap approaching CNY950 billion, just one rung below the magic CNY1-trillion mark. The world's most valuable liquor concern, consumption of virtually all its output occurs within China. The company, whose product was first produced under that name during the Qing dynasty,but which traces back to 135 BCE, is a state-backed enterprise under mixed ownership whose success originally stemmed from its popularity among the founding fathers of the New China. The spirit is distilled from a mash made from sorghum and wheat.