(Yicai Global) May 30 -- China's baijiu liquor market began recovering since the five-day May Day holiday, listed firms said at shareholders meetings or conferences.

During the holiday, Wuliangye Yibin almost doubled its sales volume in physical channels from a year ago, beating expectations, the Yibin-based distiller announced recently. The firm sold more baijiu products than expected online as the number of sold bottles grew by nearly half.

Baijiu firms are relatively optimistic about future sales, Soochow Securities said in a research note, adding that the recovery of fundamentals is not bad even though inventory turnover is relatively soft during the off-season. 

Jiangsu province-based Yanghe Brewery Joint-Stock said that this month, sales dynamics are in line with the expectations and consumption should fully recover as macroeconomic conditions further improve. 

Luzhou Laojiao, another Sichuan province-based maker of liquor, said its domestic inventory is relatively low so it will carry the firm through around six weeks as sales have been good in April and May.

Jiugui Liquor's Deputy General Manager Wang Zhe said this month that the distiller's sales surged from a year ago after the holiday as its inventory turnover improved.

However, in the whole market, production has been reduced. From January to April, China's baijiu output dropped almost 30 percent to 1.6 million kiloliters from a year ago, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Still, in the first quarter, listed distillers' revenues increased by 16 percent. 

The added sales versus decreasing output speak for industry concentration. The number of companies in the baijiu industry fell to 963, down by almost 40 percent, as of last December from 2017 and output nearly halved as industry leaders now occupy a larger share of the market, according to insiders.

Editors: Shi Yi, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi