JT volumes to drop further

Japan Tobacco Inc. is expecting to sell 96 billion cigarettes in Japan this year, 9.6 percent fewer than in 2016, according to a story in The Japan Times.

If this prediction proves to be true, it will mark the first time that the company’s sales have dropped below 100 billion.

JT said on Monday, the day that it released its 2016 results, that the fall in sales was down to the country’s declining number of young people, increasing public health awareness, and surging demand for non-combustible cigarette-alternatives.

The company’s cigarette sales have been in decline since peaking at 303.2 billion in fiscal 1985, the year that it was privatised.

Its performance has been hit by competition from foreign brands, especially in the recent past from Philip Morris’ heated-tobacco device, iQOS.

One of the problems faced by JT is that it has had capacity issues with its own heated-tobacco device, Ploom Tech.

Vaping devices were said to have taken slightly more than five percent of the Japanese market for tobacco products as of December.

JT expects that figure to rise to 15 percent by December this year.