KT&G Breaks Ground for Kazakhstan Factory

KT&G Corp has broken ground in Kazakhstan for its fourth overseas plant as part of its expansion strategy.

The Korean tobacco firm aims to complete construction by 2025 and export its products to the Eurasian region. The news follows KT&G’s announcement last month that it would build a second factory in Indonesia, with an aim of starting operations in 2026 and exporting products to neighboring countries.

“The new Kazakhstan factory will serve as a global core production hub covering the Eurasian market and will be a forefront base for realizing the group’s future vision of global top-tier,” said KT&G CEO Baek Bok-in in a statement, referring to the company’s global ambitions.

The company aims to earn half of its sales from overseas businesses in 2027. It wants to achieve sales of KRW10 trillion ($7.4 billion) in 2027, compared with KRW5.9 trillion in 2022.

While focusing on the conventional cigarette business, KT&G said it will reinforce its heat-not-burn (HNB) and health functional food product businesses.

KT&G has exported its HNB products to more than 30 countries since 2020 through a distribution deal with Philip Morris International.

The company’s cigarette division earns 78 percent of its sales from the conventional cigarette business and 22 percent from the HNB business.

KT&G has six tobacco  factories—three in South Korea and one each in Russia, Turkey and Indonesia.