Category: News This Week

Vape Battery Air Incidents Skyrocket

Photo: frank peters
The number of e-cigarette battery air incidents has tripled since 2019, reports The Wall Street Journal, citing a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) database.
Vapes and e-cigarettes were the leading cause for lithium battery incidents on aircraft in 2022, ahead of those caused by battery packs and laptops. Of the 55 incidents reported through September of last year, vapes and e-cigarettes accounted for 19, which was 35 percent of all incidents in 2022 and triple the incidents reported in all of 2019, the FAA says.
According to the agency, the batteries in these devices can catch fire if damaged or if the battery terminals are short-circuited.
Vapes aren’t allowed in checked luggage and must be brought in carry-on luggage because of cargo-area fire risks.
The federal government banned smoking on most U.S. flights in 1990. In 2016, the U.S. finalized its ban on e-cigarettes on all domestic commercial flights as well as on international flights to and from the country.
Passengers should refrain from charging e-cigarettes on a plane and store their device carefully to prevent them from accidentally turning on, according to the FAA. They should transport their vapes in a protective case or remove the battery and place each battery in its own case or plastic bag to prevent a short-circuit, the agency says.
Passengers who violate federal vaping laws risk fines up to $1,771.
February 10, 2023
U.K. Supermarkets Stop Selling Elfbar Vape

Photo: Elfbar
U.K. supermarkets are removing Elfbar 600 disposable electronic cigarettes from their shelves after the product was found to contain higher-than-allowed volumes of nicotine e-liquid, reports ITV News.
“We have temporarily removed one Elfbar vape line from sale as a precautionary measure whilst the manufacturer urgently investigates these claims,” a Tesco spokesperson said.
Sainsbury’s followed suit with a spokesperson saying: “We are in close contact with our supplier and have temporarily removed the affected Elfbar product whilst they investigate further.”
Morrisons has gone a step further and has stopped the sale of the whole Elfbar 600 range.
“As part of our ongoing investigation into the legal compliance of Elfbar 600 disposable electronic cigarettes with Trading Standards, we have made the decision to remove all flavored variants from sale,” a spokesperson told ITV News.
“The products will only be returned to sale once stock that fully complies with U.K. legislation becomes available.”
The supermarkets acted after a Daily Mail investigation found Elfbar 600s to have at least 50 percent more than the legal limit for nicotine e-liquid. E-cigarettes bought at branches of Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons contained between 3 mL and 3.2 mL of e-liquid, when the legal limit is 2 mL.
Elfbar attributed the breach to accidental overfilling. “It appears that e-liquid tank sizes, which are standard in other markets [such as the U.S.], have been inadvertently fitted to some of our U.K. products,” a company spokesperson told the Daily Mail.
“We wholeheartedly apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.”
February 10, 2023
PMI: New Rules Make Leaving Russia Difficult

Jacek Olczak
(Photo: PMI)
New rules are making leaving Russia more difficult, Philip Morris International CEO Jacek Olczak told Bloomberg.
Following Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, PMI and other tobacco companies announced they would scale down their operations and eventually exit the country.
In anticipation of that move, PMI throughout 2022 provided financial figures that excluded its Russian business. Its full-year results, however, included Russia again.
Olczak told Bloomberg the decision does not signal a change in plans. Rather, it reflects the difficulty of exiting Russia. “As long as we are the owner, we will include the [Russian] number,” Olczak said.
According to Olczak, new regulations have made it more difficult for foreign investors to exit Russia. In any transaction, the government now has an important voice on asset valuations, access to cash flow and dividends, he said. This makes it hard for any party interested in taking over the business.
Meanwhile, Olczak said PMI was considering coming back on a more sustainable basis to Ukraine.
In related news, BAT expects to complete the sale of its Russian business to local partners in 2023, according to Reuters.
BAT said it was in advanced discussions with a “joint management distributor consortium” on the sale of its businesses in Russia and Belarus but did not reveal the identity of the party or divulge further details on the talks.
The company said in March 2022 that it was in talks to transfer its Russian business to its Russian distributor, SNS Group of Companies.
February 10, 2023
PMTA Review Target Date Pushed Back
Photo: Brian Jackson
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has submitted a new timeline for its review of premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs).
In prior status reports, the FDA indicated that it expected to have taken action on all covered applications by June 30, 2023. Filed with the Maryland Federal District Court on Jan. 24, 2023, the agency’s fourth report states that it now expects to have acted on PMTAs as follows:
52 percent of covered applications by March 31, 2023
53 percent of covered applications by June 30, 2023
55 percent of covered applications by Sept. 30, 2023
100 percent of covered applications by Dec. 31, 2023
In response to litigation by public health groups, a Maryland Federal District Court in April 2022 ordered the FDA to file regular status reports on its progress in reviewing PMTAs for the most popular vapor products on the U.S. market, including Juul, Vuse, Njoy, Logic, Blu, Smok, Suorin or Puff Bar.
The original target completion date for the review process was Sept. 9, 2021; however, the FDA was unable to meet it due to the extremely large number of PMTAs filed by manufacturers.
The most recent delay is due in part to ongoing litigation and to the agency’s acceptance of amendments to some already filed PMTAs, according to the report.
The FDA is expected to give its next status update to the court on April 24.
February 9, 2023
Income Up for Universal

Image: thanksforbuying | Adobe Stock
Universal Corp.’s net income for the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2022, was $70.3 million, or $2.82 per diluted share, compared with $60.8 million, or $2.44 per diluted share, for the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2021, according to a company press release. Excluding certain nonrecurring items, net income and diluted earnings per share increased by $1.1 million and $0.04, respectively, for the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2022, compared to the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2021.
Operating income of $128.7 million for the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2022, increased by $25.5 million compared to operating income of $103.2 million for the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2021. Adjusted operating income of $128.7 million increased by $12.2 million for the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2022, compared to adjusted operating income of $116.5 million for the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2021.
Net income for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022, was $41.7 million, or $1.67 per diluted share, compared with $34.9 million, or $1.40 per diluted share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021. Excluding certain nonrecurring items, net income and diluted earnings per share decreased by $3.1 million and $0.13, respectively, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022, compared to the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021.
Operating income of $77.5 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022, increased by $14.8 million compared to operating income of $62.8 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021. Adjusted operating income of $77.5 million increased by $2.7 million for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023 compared to adjusted operating income of $74.9 million for the third quarter of fiscal year 2022.
Consolidated revenues increased by $419.2 million to $1.9 billion for the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2022, compared to the same period in fiscal year 2022, on higher tobacco sales volumes and prices as well as the addition of the business acquired in October 2021 in the ingredients operations segment. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022, consolidated revenues were $795 million, an increase of $142.4 million compared to $652.6 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021, on higher tobacco sales volumes and prices.
George C. Freeman III, chairman, president and CEO of Universal, stated, “We are extremely pleased with our results driven by strong tobacco shipments in the nine months and quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022, compared to the same periods in fiscal year 2022. Tobacco shipments are generally moving smoothly, and we are not seeing the logistical constraints that we saw in the prior fiscal year. Our ingredients operations segment also continued to positively contribute to and diversify our results in the nine months and quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022.
“There continues to be significant demand for leaf tobacco with all types of leaf tobacco currently in an undersupply position. Short burley tobacco crops in Africa, largely due to weather conditions, have contributed to the lower leaf tobacco supply. As of Dec. 31, 2022, our uncommitted inventory levels stood at less than 7 percent of our tobacco inventory, an exceptionally low level. Although it is still early, we are forecasting larger crops in several key tobacco origins in fiscal year 2024.
“In our ingredients operations segment, we recently have been experiencing some softening of demand for some of our ingredients products, which we believe is temporary and largely due to customers adjusting their inventory levels. Some of our ingredients customers have been carrying higher inventory levels because of supply chain uncertainties. Increased costs, particularly selling, general and administrative expenses, including costs related to the expansion of sales and product development resources and deferred compensation costs from acquisitions, reduced our results for our ingredients operations segment in the quarter and nine months ended Dec. 31, 2022.”
“We successfully refinanced and expanded our bank credit facility in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022, positioning us to meet our future financial needs,” Freeman said. “In line with our previous expectations, we also reduced our outstanding borrowings considerably in the three months ended Dec. 31, 2022, as we moved beyond our peak working capital requirements for fiscal year 2023.
“Our fiscal year 2022 Sustainability Report was published in December 2022 and is available on our website.”
February 9, 2023
New Category Growth Drives BAT Revenue

Image: Miha Creative | Adobe Stock
BAT released its 2022 financial results, showing that revenue was up 2.3 percent, driven by new category growth and pricing. Adjusted profit from operations was up 4.3 percent, absorbing a negative transactional foreign currency impact of 1.5 percent.
For 2023, the company expects the global tobacco industry volume to be down about 2 percent. An organic constant currency revenue growth of 3 percent to 5 percent is expected, with reported growth impacted by the timing of the transfer of the Russian and Belarussian businesses expected to close in 2023.
“We continue to accelerate our ‘A Better Tomorrow’ transformation at speed,” said BAT CEO Jack Bowles. “Driven by our strong new category momentum, (with revenue approaching £3 billion), we are confident in our £5 billion ($6.09 billion) revenue target by 2025 and now expect new category profitability in 2024, one year ahead of plan.
“Our new category business delivered strong volume, revenue and market share growth and has become a significant contributor to the group’s financial delivery. In 2022, we invested more than £2 billion in new categories to drive long-term sustainable growth while making excellent progress in reducing operating losses by 62 percent.
“While reported results were impacted by a number of one-off charges, we achieved a 150 bps improvement in adjusted operating margin at current rates and another year of 100 percent operating cash conversion, demonstrating our ability to successfully navigate an increasingly challenging macroeconomic environment. This enabled us to return £6.9 billion to shareholders in 2022. I am proud of our people and their focus on delivery of our three strategic priorities, demonstrating once again the strength and resilience of our business.
“Looking forward, while we expect the macroeconomic environment to remain challenging, we will continue to deliver and further accelerate our transformation. We will leverage our well-established multi-category brand portfolio, our new regional structure to enable even greater collaboration and accelerated decision-making and our new market archetype model to guide our strategic choices and resource allocation to further enhance returns.”
February 9, 2023
PMI Reports Strong Results for 2022

Image: Nuthawut | Adobe Stock
Philip Morris International announced its 2022 fourth-quarter and full-year results. Given the impact of the war in Ukraine on the company’s operations in Russia and Ukraine in 2022, PMI also provided figures and comparisons excluding the company’s operations in these two markets for all historical periods. To provide more clarity on the full extent of the company’s business in 2023, PMI included both Ukraine and Russia in its 2023 forecast and adjusted reporting.
For the full year, net revenues from smoke-free products accounted for 32.1 percent of total net revenues, or 31.3 percent excluding Russia and Ukraine. Following the acquisition of Swedish Match, PMI defines “smoke-free products” to include all Swedish Match products other than Swedish Match’s combustible tobacco products in addition to PMI’s heat-not-burn, e-vapor, oral nicotine and wellness and healthcare products. Market share for heated-tobacco units (HTUs) in IQOS markets were up by 1.1 points to 8 percent, or by 1.4 points to 7.9 percent excluding Russia and Ukraine. The company increased regular quarterly dividend by 1.6 percent to $1.27 per share, or an annualized rate of $5.08 per share.
For the fourth quarter, net revenues from smoke-free products accounted for 36 percent of total net revenues, or 35.6 percent excluding Russia and Ukraine. Market share for HTUs in IQOS markets was up by 1.4 points to 8.5 percent, or up by 1.8 points to 8.5 percent excluding Russia and Ukraine. Total IQOS users at quarter end were estimated at approximately 24.9 million, of which approximately 17.8 million had switched to IQOS and stopped smoking (approximately 20.3 million and 14.2 million, respectively, excluding Russia and Ukraine).
“Despite the challenging operating environment in 2022, due to the war in Ukraine as well as supply chain and global inflationary pressures, we delivered very strong full-year adjusted results led by the continued growth of IQOS and a robust performance in the combustible tobacco category,” said Jacek Olczak, PMI CEO.
“We are well on our way to becoming a majority smoke-free company, with smoke-free products accounting for almost one-third of our total net revenues for the year. With the acquisition of Swedish Match and the agreement to take full control of IQOS in the U.S. in April 2024, we achieved two important milestones in our smoke-free transformation in 2022 and are well positioned to accelerate this journey.
“We enter 2023 as a truly global smoke-free champion, with two of the industry’s leading smoke-free brands, IQOS and Zyn, and continued innovation across our broader smoke-free product portfolio. For the year, we forecast organic top-line growth of 7 percent to 8.5 percent and currency-neutral adjusted diluted EPS growth of 7 percent to 9 percent despite inflationary pressures and transitory impacts related to Iluma deployment.
“For Swedish Match, we expect continued strong growth from the business in 2023, following a very strong finish to the year led by Zyn in the U.S.”
February 9, 2023
IQOS Iluma One Debuts in South Korea

Photo: PMI
Philip Morris International has introduced its IQOS Iluma One in South Korea, reports The Korea Times. The launch comes three months after the debut of IQOS Iluma and IQOS Iluma Prime models in the country.
According to Philip Morris Korea Managing Director Paik Young-jae, the launch of Iluma One completes the Iluma platform family.
“The first two Iluma models have received a good response from the market, and if this continues, I am hoping that we will reclaim the leading position in the e-cigarette market here,” Paik said.
Since the launch of the IQOS device in 2017, Philip Morris Korea had maintained the No. 1 spot in the domestic heat-not-burn for five years. However, in the first quarter of 2022, KT&G took over market leadership in the first quarter of last year.
IQOS Iluma One retails in South Korea for KRW69,000 ($54.74), which is about 30 percent cheaper than the IQOS Iluma.
The new device is made with an all-in-one lightweight design that can be held in one hand. A single charge can be used to smoke 20 tobacco sticks.
Like other IQOS Iluma models, the IQOS Iluma One uses “Terea Smartcore” sticks, which heat tobacco with an induction system adopted inside its body so that users don’t have to clean any residue afterward.
February 9, 2023
‘Cancer Moonshot’ Takes Aim at Smoking

Image: Tobacco Reporter archive
U.S. President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address stated that cutting smoking rates in order to prevent cancer deaths is a main goal of his “Cancer Moonshot” program.
According to Biden, the administration’s goal is to cut cancer deaths by half in the next 25 years. In order to do so, one of the aims is to “help people avoid smoking in the first place and support Americans who want to quit.” He noted that “While we have made progress, tobacco products still hook too many young people at an early age and take control away from individual Americans to make the decision not to smoke. The administration is working to put that control back in the hands of Americans.”
“We’re going to continue to focus on prevention,” said Danielle Carnival, the White House “Cancer Moonshot” coordinator. “We’re committed to continuing to use authorities and programs to keep making progress.”
Prior to the State of the Union, some conservative commentators had complained about a “war on cigarettes.” After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced its plan to ban menthol cigarettes, Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed that nicotine “frees your mind,” according to Business Insider. Biden first launched the “Cancer Moonshot” program in 2015 while he served as vice president. He renewed the program last year.
February 8, 2023
German Cigarette Sales at Historic Low

Photo: Tupungato
Cigarette sales in Germany fell 8.3 percent to 65.8 billion units in 2022, according to tobacco tax stamp figures published by the Federal Statistical Office on Feb. 8.
German cigarette volumes have been declining steadily for years. In 2012, smokers bought 82.4 billion cigarettes. As a result of tobacco tax increases and inflation-related adjustments, a pack of 20 premium cigarettes became more than 5 percent expensive in both 2022 and 2023—which is still below the average rate of inflation in those years.
In response to the price hikes, some smokers have switched to fine-cut tobacco, which is taxed at lower rates. Sales of roll-your-own and make-your-own cigarettes remained stable in 2022 at 25,080 tons.
Sales of cigars and cigarillos declined 8.9 percent compared to the previous year. The pipe tobacco tax category, which in 2021 still included classic pipe tobacco, water pipe tobacco and tobacco heaters, now only reflects sales of classic pipe tobacco, which reached 324.5 tons in 2022. The volume for water pipe tobacco was 962.6 tons.
The share of untaxed cigarette sales in Germany declined from 19.1 percent in 2019 to 17.3 percent in 2022, likely as a result of coronavirus-related travel restrictions. According to the German Association of the Tobacco Industry and New Products (BVTE), this means that lower legal cigarette sales were not fully offset by sales of products purchased abroad or on the black market.
In July 2022, Germany started taxing e-liquids at a rate of €0.16 ($0.17) per milliliter. The government taxed 226,018 liters that year, earning €42.6 million from the segment. The impact of the tax increases will become visible only after the old, untaxed stocks may no longer be sold after Feb. 13.
By 2026, Germany’s Ministry of Finance expects e-cigarettes to generate revenues of €1 billion, a figure that the BVTE in a statement described as unrealistic.
Despite the tax increase, the federal government collected €14.23 billion in tobacco taxes in 2022, 3.4 less than in 2021.
February 8, 2023