Tag: International

  • PMI’s 3Q volume down

    PMI’s 3Q volume down

    Philip Morris International’s cigarette shipment volume during the third quarter (July-September), at 198,465 million was down by 4.1 percent on that of the third quarter of 2016, 207,051 million.

    Shipments were down in each of its four regions: by 2.6 percent to 60,062 million in Asia, by 3.5 percent to 20,452 million in Latin America & Canada, by 4.6 percent to 68,837 in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMA), and by 5.6 percent to 49,114 million in the European Union.

    Overall shipments of Marlboro during the third quarter fell by 6.1 percent to 68,886 million. Shipments of Marlboro were said to have fallen in the EU, mainly due to its performance in Germany, Italy and Spain; in the EEMA, mainly due to the new excise tax implemented in Saudi Arabia in June 2017 that resulted in the doubling of the retail price of Marlboro from SAR12 to SAR24 per pack; in Asia, mainly due to ‘out-switching’ to HeatSticks in Japan, partly offset by the brand’s performance in Indonesia and the Philippines; and in Latin America & Canada, mainly due to its performance in Mexico.

    Meanwhile, shipments of Philip Morris were increased by 47.1 percent to 12,838 million and shipments of Chesterfield were up by 21.7 percent to 15,116 million; but shipments of other PMI brands fell.

    L&M shipments were down by 6.1 percent to 23,809 million; Parliament shipments were down by 6.9 percent to 11,354 million; Bond Street shipments were down by 15.3 percent to 9,912 million; Lark shipments were down by 9.6 percent to 6,321 million; and shipments of other cigarettes were down by 10.8 percent to 50,229 million.

    Total shipments of HeatSticks reached 9,725 million units during the three months to the end of September, up from 2,089 million during the three months to the end of September 2016.

    In its Asia region, shipments of HeatSticks rose from 2,006 million to 8,826 million, while they increased from 56 million to 464 million in the EU, and from 27 million to 427 million in EEMA. Shipments of HeatSticks in Latin America and Canada, where they had not registered in the third quarter of 2016, were eight million in the third quarter of this year.

    PMI’s reported and adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) during the third quarter of 2017, at $1.27, were increased by $0.02 on those of the third quarter of 2016.

    Reported net revenues, at $20.6 billion, were up by 3.5 percent, while net revenues, excluding excise taxes, at $7.5 billion, were up by 7.0 percent.

    Reported operating income, at $3.1 billion, was up by 3.1 percent, while operating companies’ income, at $3.1 billion, was up by 2.2 percent, and adjusted operating companies’ income, at $3.1 billion, was up by 2.2 percent.

    “As expected, our third-quarter financial results were very strong, including double-digit currency-neutral EPS growth,” said CEO André Calantzopoulos.

    “We recorded a sequential improvement in our total volume performance, driven by both our combustible and reduced-risk products, and grew our international market share.

    “Despite pressure on profitability from adverse developments in Russia and Saudi Arabia, as well as significant investments behind IQOS, which continues its stellar performance, we are on track to deliver full-year currency-neutral adjusted diluted EPS growth of approximately nine percent to 10 percent, highlighting both the strength of our combustible business and the exciting potential of a smoke-free future.”

  • ILO told to cut tobacco ties

    ILO told to cut tobacco ties

    Ahead of the meeting of the governing body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on November 1, a coalition of about 200 public health organizations, including the World Health Organization, is urging the ILO to end its tobacco-industry ties, according to a story in the Nation (Thailand) relayed by the TMA

    Dr. Mary Assunta, senior policy adviser for the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), was quoted as saying that it was unfortunate that the ILO chose to damage its reputation by accepting money from the tobacco industry when other UN agencies had already “disengaged themselves from Big Tobacco”.

    In June, the story reported, the UN had adopted a resolution encouraging its agencies to disengage with the tobacco industry, and, last month, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) had permanently banned tobacco industry participation.

    Assunta said that the ILO had the opportunity “to catch up” with other agencies and “stand on the right side of history to prioritise and protect workers’ welfare”.

    It was estimated that, since 2015, the ILO had received more than US$15 million from tobacco corporations for joint programs to combat child labor.

    SEATCA said the industry used this collaboration to boost its public relations, but did little to address poverty among farmers, which was the cause of children having to work in tobacco fields.

    Assunta urged the agency not to be swayed by “the paltry handouts from the tobacco industry”, and called on the governing body to cut ties with the tobacco industry as recommended in the model policy of the UN Inter-agency Task Force.

  • Nicotine gene identified

    Nicotine gene identified

    A DNA variant located in the DNMT3B gene and commonly found in people of European and African descent increases the likelihood of developing nicotine dependence, smoking heavily, and developing lung cancer, according to a story on sciencedaily.com citing a new study led by RTI International.

    The story quoted World Health Organization figures claiming that, worldwide, nearly one billion people smoke and six million premature deaths occur annually from cigarette smoking. Smoking was said to be the leading cause of preventable death and one person was said to die every six seconds from smoking-related causes.

    The new study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, is said to be the largest genome-wide association study of nicotine dependence. Researchers studied more than 38,600 former and current smokers from the US, Iceland, Finland, and the Netherlands.

    “This new finding widens the scope of how genetic factors are known to influence nicotine dependence,” said Dana Hancock, Ph.D., genetic epidemiologist at RTI and co-author of the study.

    “The variant that we identified is common, occurring in 44 percent of Europeans or European Americans and 77 percent of African Americans, and it exerts important effects on gene regulation in [the] human brain, specifically in the cerebellum, which has long been overlooked in the study of addiction.”

    The genetic variant was linked to an increased risk of nicotine dependence by testing nearly 18 million variants across the genome for association with nicotine dependence. The variant was also tested in independent studies and found to be associated with heavier smoking and with an increased risk of lung cancer.

    The story is at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171010124112.htm.

  • Funding applications sought

    Funding applications sought

    Philip Morris International said on Friday that it was calling for funding proposals under PMI IMPACT, its US$100 million global initiative to support third party projects dedicated to fighting illegal trade.

    ‘Proposals can come from private, public, or non-governmental organizations, and interested organizations must submit their applications by November 15, 2017,’ the company said in a note posted on its website.

    ‘For this second funding round, PMI IMPACT will focus on initiatives that address converging forms of illegal trade and related crimes, such as corruption, money laundering, and organized criminal networks.

    ‘The projects can be implemented anywhere in the world, but should have an impact in one or more of these geographic areas: Eastern Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Tri-Border Area in South America, Central America, South and Southeast Asia.

    ‘As highlighted by expert speakers from public institutions, law enforcement, the private sector, and civil society at a two-day conference on Combating Illicit Trade, held in London earlier this week with the support of PMI IMPACT, illegal trade takes many forms – ranging from the smuggling and counterfeiting of goods to human trafficking, and the trade in drugs, arms, and wildlife. Illegal activities are frequently interlinked and converge, as criminals exploit the same large-scale trafficking routes and modes of operation.’

    PMI said the PMI IMPACT Expert Council would review and select the projects for funding.

    “We are looking forward to receiving cutting-edge proposals that will help private and public organizations improve their knowledge and efficiency in the fight against this growing concern worldwide,” said Alain Juillet, a member of the PMI IMPACT Expert Council.

    Information on how to apply for the second funding round is at: http://www.pmi-impact.com/Apply/How.

  • Exhibitor numbers a record

    Exhibitor numbers a record

    A record number of exhibitors have registered for the TFWA World Exhibition and Conference, which is due to be held at the Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France, on October 1-6.

    Five-hundred-and-fifteen companies have registered so far, up 4.7 percent on last year’s registrations.

    Sixty-one exhibitors are said to new or returning after a short absence.

    The Cannes event will also see the debut of the TFWA Digital Village, an exhibition that, the organisers say, will occupy 840 square metres of prime floor space at Gare Maritime on October 4-6 inclusive. Thirty exhibitors will demonstrate how new technology can be utilised in duty free and travel retail.

    Visitors to the event will be able to make use of a new geo-localisation app that will allow them to identify where they are on a 3D interactive floor plan and to be guided along a route to a stand of their choice. Delegates will select the exhibitors they are interested in prior to the event and record them in a visit folder to be accessed on site.

    To help exhibitors maximise their impact at the exhibition, the TFWA Product Showcase, which is now open at www.tfwaproductshowcase.com, allows exhibitors to profile and promote their products online.

    More information is available at: www.tfwa.com.

  • $14 a year is not enough

    $14 a year is not enough

    The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) has passed a resolution aimed at guaranteeing farmworkers the right to collective bargaining, according to a story by Stephanie Carson for Public News Service, relayed by the TMA.

    And later this month, Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) members will vote on a proposed boycott of Reynolds American products to protest against the working conditions. FLOC, according to Wikipedia, is a labor union representing migrant farm workers in the Midwestern US and North Carolina.

    FLOC member Catherine Crow said there were a lot of issues in North Carolina, most of which had to do with farmworkers having a lack of representation and a lack of freedom of association.

    This meant that farmworkers risked losing their jobs if they came across and spoke out against issues such as wage theft, poor housing conditions, and poor working conditions.

    They had no job security.

    Crow said that since RJ Reynolds, the parent company of Reynolds American, offered products other than tobacco, the boycott would extend to other areas including electronic cigarettes.

    “[W]e’re going to be looking to target the companies that sell that product as well, like 7-Eleven and other convenience stores,” Crow said.

    Meanwhile, earlier this year, FLOC representatives reportedly challenged British American Tobacco during its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in London over what FLOC described as human rights abuses on BAT contract farms.

    In a note on its website, FLOC said that BAT, which at the time was planning to pay US$49 billion to complete its acquisition of Reynolds American, was asked about its failure ‘to be transparent and take concrete action despite numerous reports detailing human rights abuses’ on its contract farms.

    This year was said to have marked the seventh year that FLOC had attended the shareholders meeting.

    ‘During the 2014 AGM, BAT chairman Richard Burrows claimed that there were no labor or human rights violations in the BAT supply chain,’ the note said.

    ‘Since then, independent research groups including SwedWatch and Human Rights Watch have published reports detailing serious human rights abuses on BAT contract farms in Bangladesh and Indonesia respectively, echoing what FLOC has been reporting for years from the fields of North Carolina.

    ‘In BAT’s own corporate audit report, they admitted instances of worker death by heat stroke, workers being sprayed by pesticides, and poor housing conditions, among other issues.’

    After the meeting, FLOC leaders were said to have met directly with BAT executives to discuss the issues and ‘real solutions’ in more depth.

    But FLOC said that while BAT had stated that it had wanted to work with FLOC to resolve issues in the BAT supply chain, human rights violations would continue until BAT agreed ‘to guarantee freedom of association and implement a practical mechanism that allows farmworkers to denounce abuses and act as their own auditors.’

  • Standard the new norm

    Standard the new norm

    Standardized tobacco packaging has been adopted in eight countries and is under consideration in at least 15 others, according to the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA).

    In July, Norway joined Australia, France and the UK as countries that had implemented standardized-tobacco-pack regulations, the FCA said, while Hungary, Ireland, New Zealand and Slovenia had set dates for requiring cigarettes to be sold in such packs.

    Ireland was set to implement regulations at the end of this month, and, while Hungary’s law required cigarette manufacturers to use standardized packaging from May 20, 2018, any new brands launched after August 20, 2016, have been required to be sold in standardized packs.

    At the same time 15 other jurisdictions had taken formal steps toward requiring standardized tobacco packaging.

    The introduction of standardised tobacco packaging, the FCA said, comprised one of the recommendations within the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

    Countries were said by the FCA to have committed to standardized packaging despite predictable, costly legal challenges from the tobacco industry.

    The Australian government, which, at the end of 2012, had become the first country to require standardized tobacco packaging, was said to have faced multiple lawsuits from Philip Morris: lawsuits brought both within the country and via an international investment agreement. The government won them all.

    And earlier this year it had been reported that the World Trade Organization had rejected a challenge to Australia’s law as an illegal barrier to trade. A final ruling was expected soon.

    In May last year, a UK High Court had rejected a tobacco industry lawsuit against standard packaging. The judge had found that the industry largely “ignores or airily dismisses the worldwide research and literature base which contradicts evidence tendered by the tobacco industry; and, is frequently unverifiable”.

  • CORESTA reporting

    CORESTA reporting

    The CORESTA Secretariat has given details of the documents that it has published and the projects that it has launched since May.

    The following documents have been published and can be downloaded from the CORESTA website at www.coresta.org under the Documents section.

    • Method No. 83 “Determination of Ammonia in Mainstream Cigarette Smoke by Ion Chromatography May 2017” (second edition) (2017-05-04)
    • Report “3rd Proficiency Test (2017) on Diffusion Capacity of Cigarette Papers” (2017-05-18)
    • Method No. 84 “Determination of Glycerin, Propylene Glycol, Water, and Nicotine in the Aerosol of E-Cigarettes by Gas Chromatographic Analysis” (second edition) (2017-06-13)
    • Report “2017 Collaborative Study on TSNA, pH, and Moisture (Oven Volatiles)” (2017-07-03)
    • Report “2017 Collaborative Study on Benzo[a]pyrene in Tobacco Products” (2017-07-04)
    • Method No. 82 “Determination of Benzo[a]pyrene in Tobacco Products by GC-MS” (third edition) (2017-07-04)
    • Method No. 72 “Determination of Tobacco Specific Nitrosamines in Tobacco and Tobacco Products by LC-MS/MS” (fourth edition) (2017-07-12)
    • Report “Determination of Nitrite and Nitrate in Smokeless Tobacco Products by IC and CFA – 2016 Collaborative Study” (2017-07-20)
    • Method No. 76 “Determination of Moisture Content (Oven Volatiles) of Tobacco and Tobacco Products” (second edition) (2017-07-20)
    • Method No. 69 “Determination of pH in Tobacco and Tobacco Products” (second edition) (2017-07-20)
    • Report “2017 Metals Proficiency Study” (2017-07-24)

    In addition, the following new projects were launched since May. A full list of active projects is available on the CORESTA website at www.coresta.org under the Study Groups/Active Projects section:

    • Project 149: CORESTA Presentation at TMA Annual Meeting & Conference
    • Project 150: TTPA SG – Ammonia and B[a]P Collaborative Study
    • Project 151: TBO TF – Biotechnology and Omics Scientific Literature Review and Nomenclature Definition
    • Project 152: PTM SG – 5th Round Robin Test on Air Permeability Calibration Standards
    • Project 153: SMA SG – Revision of CRM74 in line with development of ISO21160 (Selected Carbonyls)
    • Project 154: EVAP SG – Presentation at Next Generation Nicotine Delivery 2017 Conference in London, November 2017.
  • PMI’s volume down sharply

    PMI’s volume down sharply

    Philip Morris International’s cigarette shipment volume during the second quarter to the end of June, at 193,540 million, was down by 7.5 per cent on that of the second quarter of 2016, 209,289 million.

    Volume increased by 1.4 percent to 21,553 million in its Latin America and Canada region, but it fell in each of its other three regions: by 1.3 percent to 49,758 million in the EU; by 5.7 percent to 64,414 in its Eastern Europe and Middle East (EEMA) region; and by 16.6 percent to 57,815 million in its Asia region.

    Cigarette shipments of Marlboro were down by 1.8 percent to 68,830 million, while those of L&M where down by 4.8 percent to 23,369 million. Cigarette shipments of Chesterfield rose by 17.7 percent to 13,652 million; those of Parliament fell by 6.2 percent to 11,169 million; those of Bond Street fell by 9.5 percent to 10,278 million; those of Philip Morris increased by 42.4 percent to 12,688 million; and those of Lark fell by 24.5 percent to 5,688 million.

    The 2017 second-quarter declines were offset to some extent by an increase in sales of heated tobacco units from 1,157 million during the second quarter of 2016 to 6,350 during the second quarter of 2017. Sales of heated tobacco units were increased in all regions: in the EU from 31 million to 392 million; in the EEMA from eight million to 229 million; in the Asia region from 1,118 million to 5,726 million; and in the Latin America and Canada region from zero to three million.

    Taken together, cigarette and heated tobacco unit volume during the second quarter, at 199,890 million, was down by 5.0 percent on that of the second quarter of 2016, 210,446 million.

    PMI reported that its total shipment volume of cigarettes and heated tobacco units during the six months to the end of June, at 377,877 million, was down by 7.1 percent on that of the six months to the end of June 2016, 406,940 million. The decline, excluding net estimated inventory movements, was put at 6.3 percent. It was said to have been principally due to the company’s performance in Asia, notably in Indonesia, but also in Pakistan and the Philippines, reflecting ongoing declines of primarily low-margin cigarette volumes; and due to its performance in the EEMA.

    Meanwhile, PMI’s cigarette volume during the six months to the end of June, at 367,092 million, was down by 9.4 percent on that of the six months to the end of June 2016, 405,330 million. This fall was said to have been due to: its performance in the EU, principally in Italy and Spain, partly offset by that in Poland; in the EEMA region, reflecting declines across the region, notably in Russia and Ukraine; in the Asia region, principally in Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan and the Philippines; and in the Latin America & Canada region, principally in Argentina, Brazil and Canada.  However, the decline in cigarette shipment volume was partly offset by a higher heated tobacco unit shipment volume up from 1.6 billion units during the first six months of 2016 to 10.8 billion units during the first six month of this year, driven by its performance in Japan.

    Reported diluted earnings per share during the second quarter, at $1.14, were down by 0.9 percent on those of the second quarter of 2016, $1.15, while adjusted dilute earnings per share, at $1.14, were down by 0.9 percent.

    Reported net revenues were up by 1.5 percent to $19.3 billion while net revenues, excluding excise taxes, of $6.9 billion, were up by 4.0 percent.

    “Our quarterly results were robust with, as expected, sequential improvement in our volume performance, as well as strong currency-neutral net revenue growth of seven percent versus last year,” said CEO André Calantzopoulos.

    “IQOS, our flagship smoke-free alternative, continues to perform exceptionally well, supported by further recent successful market launches, notably in Korea. In the quarter, shipments of Marlboro HeatSticks represented over 40 percent of our total shipments in Japan, where we recorded a national share of 10 percent.

    “To date, more than 2.9 million adult consumers have already stopped smoking and switched to IQOS.”

  • CORESTA registration open

    CORESTA registration open

    The registration websites for CORESTA’s 2017 Joint Study Group meetings are both open, according to a note from the organization’s secretariat.

    The Smoke Science and Product Technology (SSPT2017) meeting is due to be held at Kitzbühel, Austria, on October 8-12.

    The SSPT2017 website is at www.sspt2017.org, where the ‘early registration’ deadline is August 1.

    Meanwhile, the Agronomy & Leaf Integrity and Phytopathology & Genetics meeting (AP2017) is scheduled to be held at Santa Cruz do Sul, Brazil, on October 22-26.

    The AP2017 website is at www.corestabrazil.com, where the ‘early registration’ deadline is July 31.