China's traditional liquor makers have had a ball in recent years with booming sales and soaring stock prices, but increasing competition and changing lifestyles as well as tastes catch up, The Wall Street Journal reported. Shares of Kweichow Moutai Co., Wuliangye Yibin Co. and Luzhou Lao Jiao Co., makers of Chinese white rice wine, have all outpaced the overall market this year, nearly doubling or tripling their stock prices. Kweichow Moutai, branded producer of China's most renowned baijiu, white rice wine in Chinese, has sales and net profit have grown at a double-digit pace every year since its Shanghai listing in 2001. However, this has also created more competition from rivals trying to get a bigger slice of the market. Wuliangye and Luzhou Lao Jiao are boosting production and increasing the output of high-end products. "The premium white-liquor market is getting more and more crowded and competitive with the emergence of new players," said the paper, quoted Zhu Weihua, an analyst at Merchants Securities, as saying. Rebecca Yang, an analyst at Martin Currie Fund, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, says loyalty to top brands such as Maotai from bureaucrats, military officers and some wealthy older fans continues to support sales. But the longer term outlook isn't rosy. Among young affluent Chinese, Western wine and beer are the preferred beverages. While the overall baijiu market is expected to grow at a single-digit rate in coming years, sales of wine, seen as more fashionable and better for health, are expected to increase by 25% annually in the next three years, says an analyst at TX Investment Consulting Co.