Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., the largest U.S. brewer, said that China sales volume grew 20 percent in the January-September period and that future gains would likely be powered by organic growth.

Stephen Burrows, chief executive of Anheuser-Busch International, was satisfied with his base of operations in China even as aggressive rivals gain market share through acquisitions. "Certainly, it is organic growth in China," said Burrows, who travels to China about once a month.

The company has invested about $1.3 billion in the mainland, the world's largest beer market by volume, helping it become Anheuser-Busch's largest overseas market and fastest growing. "When you buy an existing company there is rough spots in that," he said. Anheuser-Busch has a 27 percent stake in Tsingtao Brewery Co. Ltd., China's largest beer maker. It also bought Wuhan Brewing Co. in 1995 and Harbin Brewery Group, the country's fifth largest beer maker.

Burrows said he had met most of the brewers in China over the past few years but was not currently in discussions with any of them for any possible acquisition. "I have met them but that doesn't mean we are trying to acquire them," he said.

China, the world's largest beer market by volume, is a key battleground for rivals such as Anheuser-Busch and Britain's SABMiller Plc's as the average Chinese downs only 24 litters of beer a year, well below the average American's 80 liters.

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