Tag: South Korea

  • HNB gaining share

    HNB gaining share

    Heat-not-burn (HNB) cigarettes accounted for 9.6 percent of South Korea’s tobacco market in 2018, up from 2.2 percent in 2017, according to a Yonhap News Agency story citing figures published today by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

    Overall, sales of combustible and HNB cigarettes were said to have fallen by 1.5 percent in 2018 from those of a year earlier following anti-smoking interventions by the government and higher prices.

    Smokers bought 3.47 billion 20-piece cigarette packs last year, compared with 3.52 billion packs the previous year.

    Sales of combustible cigarettes fell by 8.9 percent year-on-year to 3.14 billion packs in 2018, while those of heat-not-burn cigarettes increased from 79 million packs in 2017 to 332 million packs in 2018.

    The 2018 sales figure was said to have been down by 20.4 percent on that of 2014, the year before the retail price of cigarettes was increased overnight on January 1, 2015, by 80 percent, from 2,500 won (US$2.20) per pack to 4,500 won, mainly on the back of a tax increase.

    In 2016, the Government required tobacco companies to put graphic health warnings on the upper parts of both the main faces of cigarette packs.

    Meanwhile, the government collected 11.8 trillion won in taxes from cigarette sales in 2018, up by five percent from the previous year’s 11.2 trillion won.

  • Setting boundaries

    Setting boundaries

    South Korea’s health ministry said yesterday that tobacco smoking near day-care centers and kindergartens would be banned starting this week, according to a Yonhap News Agency story.
    So, as of today, smoking within 10 meters of the country’s 390,000 day-care centers and 9,000 kindergartens will be prohibited.
    Provincial governments have been ordered to notify smokers of the new regulations by putting up signs around these facilities.
    The ministry said it would allow a grace period through March 30 to give people time to adjust to the changes.
    Those who are found to have broken the law will be liable to a fine of 100,000 won (US$89), presumably only after March 30.
    Meanwhile, tougher regulations will be applied also to ‘smoking cafés’, where people have previously been allowed to smoke because the facilities have been registered as vending-machine outlets rather than cafés.
    Under the new regulations, such facilities will be designated smoke-free starting in 2019.
    The owners must notify customers that their facilities are smoke-free zones, though the owners will be allowed to install rooms with separate ventilation systems if they want still to attract smoking customers.
    Again, the ministry said it would allow a period of grace until March 30 to give more time for people to make the necessary changes.

  • Topical warning

    Topical warning

    New graphic health warnings are expected to start to appear on cigarette packs in South Korea next month, according to a story in The Korea Times.
    They are due to appear also on heat-not-burn products.
    The 12 new images are said to show smokers suffering from ailments such as lung cancer, oral cancer, laryngeal cancer, heart attack and stroke, while carrying warnings about everything from tooth discoloration to premature death.
    South Korea first required graphic warnings on tobacco products in 2016 – warnings that take up at least 30 percent of the top of both of the main faces of cigarette packs.
    The warnings are supposed to be changed every two years.
    The smoking rate among South Korean men aged 19 and older was 20.3 percent in 2018, down from 20.8 percent in 2016, according to government data.
    Separate data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) put the smoking rate of South Korean men aged 15 and older at 31 percent in 2015, the highest among 15 OECD countries surveyed. Japan came in second with 30 percent, followed by Italy with 25 percent.

  • HNB grabs big market share

    HNB grabs big market share

    More than 230 million packs of heat-not-burn (HNB) sticks were sold in South Korea between January and September, according to a story by Kim Hyun-bin at koreatimes.co.kr citing figures published by the Ministry of Economics and Finance.
    This means that HNB sticks have captured more than nine percent of total cigarette sales since Philip Morris launched its IQOS device in May 2017.
    The Government is said to be concerned that HNB devices are popular among teenagers and that this popularity is spreading.
    According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Young Adults’ Health Condition Report, the ‘smoking’ rate among middle to high school students rose to 6.7 percent from 6.4 percent last year.
    About 9.4 percent of male students smoked, down from 9.5 percent in 2017, while the smoking rate among female students rose from 3.1 percent to 3.7 percent during the same periods.
    Of those male and female students who reported smoking, 43 percent were said to have used HNB devices.
    The story quoted ‘experts’ as saying that HNB devices were popular among teenagers as they created less odor than did conventional cigarettes. Most students smoked discreetly because they feared being caught by teachers and parents.
    The risks associated with using HNB devices were called into question after the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety released a report stating HNB devices delivered five cancer-causing substances and tar levels in excess of those delivered by combustible cigarettes.
    The Ministry announced the results after testing IQOS, British American Tobacco’s glo device and KT&G’s Lil.
    Philip Morris is suing the Ministry for declining to provide information on its research methods.

  • Sales down in South Korea

    Sales down in South Korea

    Cigarette sales in South Korea have been falling this year because of higher prices and a government-led anti-smoking campaign, according to a Xinhua story citing a government report published on Monday.
    The Ministry of Strategy and Finance reported that the number of cigarette-packs sold during the first 10 months of this year was down by 1.9 percent on that of the same period of last year.
    Cigarette sales fell sharply after January 1, 2015, when the Government imposed a WON2,000 (about US$1.80) per-pack tax rise on cigarettes that increased by about 80 percent to WON4,500 (about $4.10) the price of the average pack of cigarettes.
    Since then, sales have risen and fallen, but the general trend has been down.
    At the time of the price hike, the Government increased the scope of its public-places smoking bans, and since then has introduced graphic health warnings.
    But shortly after the tax-driven price hike, it was reported that at least part of the fall in cigarette sales had been offset by a rise in sales of vaping products, at that time, electronic cigarettes.
    Since then, heat-not-burn products have appeared on the market, and sales of these have no doubt reduced cigarette sales.
    Despite lower cigarette sales, the Government was said to have collected WON9.7 trillion (US$8.6 billion) in cigarette taxes during the first 10 months of this year, 2.6 percent more than it collected during the same period of last year.

  • Hybrid product launched

    Hybrid product launched

    South Korean tobacco manufacturer KT&G on Monday unveiled what it described as its new heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco device, Lil Hybrid, the first HNB device that works by heating a liquid cartridge, according to a story in The Korea Herald.
    “Our previous HNB tobacco devices – Lil Mini and Lil Plus – had received consumer feedback that the taste needs to be improved,” Lim Wang-seob, chief of the company’s product innovation division, was quoted as saying. “That’s why we came up with our exclusive and new platform called Lil Hybrid.”
    Lil Hybrid uses both a detachable liquid cartridge and an HNB-type stick, which has the brand name Miix. The liquid cartridge and Miix are compatible only with Lil Hybrid.
    Miix is available in three different tastes, Miix Presso, Miix Mix and Miix Ice, while the liquid cartridges do not contain flavorings.
    KT&G said that previous HNB tobacco devices worked by directly heating a tobacco stick to about 315 Celsius, but that Lil Hybrid heated the liquid cartridge to about 160 degrees.
    Meanwhile, Lim was quoted as saying that, according to safety and health-risk tests conducted by a third-party organization, the health risks of Lil Hybrid were less than those of the company’s previous models.
    In July, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety published the results of tests that it claimed had found HNB tobacco products to be equally, if not more harmful than traditional cigarettes. A court case has been launched to force it to disclose its test methodologies.
    The Korean government recently decided to require, from December, that HNB products carry the same graphic warning images as combustible-tobacco products.

  • Heated court battle

    Heated court battle

    South Korea’s food and drug watchdog said today it had filed a response to Philip Morris Korea’s lawsuit over the disclosure of information related to research on the harmful substances found in alternative tobacco products, according to a Yonhap News Agency report.
    After filing a statement to the Seoul Administrative Court on Saturday, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it had briefed a local law firm to prepare for a legal battle with PM Korea.
    The Yonhap story said that the Ministry and PM Korea were expected to engage in a ‘fierce legal battle’ once the court had set a hearing schedule.
    The lawsuit came after the Ministry said in June that five cancer-causing substances were found in heat-not-burn tobacco products sold in the local market, with the level of tar detected in some of them exceeding that of conventional cigarettes.
    The ministry made the announcement after investigating PM’s IQOS, British American Tobacco’s glo and KT&G’s lil.
    Four months later, PM Korea sued the Ministry for declining PM’s request to provide certain information about its research results, including the method of analysis and the experimental data.
    PM has claimed that, compared with conventional cigarettes, IQOS delivers lower levels of harmful compounds.
    The Ministry has reportedly expressed its displeasure at the lawsuit, saying PM Korea had skipped several administrative procedures aimed at ironing out differences.

  • Lowest-ever smoking rate

    Lowest-ever smoking rate

    The incidence of smoking among South Korea’s adult men last year dropped to the lowest level officially recorded, according to a story in The Hankyoreh.
    Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) figures indicate that the incidence or smoking among adult men (those who have smoked more than five packs in their lifetime and continue to smoke) was 38.1 percent in 2017, down from 40.7 percent the previous year.
    This is the lowest level recorded since the government began conducting health and nutrition surveys in 1998.
    The MHW said that national anti-smoking campaigns, which began in 2016, might have contributed to this decrease.

  • Smoking incidence down

    Smoking incidence down

    The Government of South Korea has credited the country’s anti-smoking campaign for having brought about a fall last year in the incidence of tobacco smoking among men aged 19 or older, according to a Yonhap News Agency story.
    The incidence of smoking among men had decreased ‘substantially’ in 2017, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, without providing figures.
    The ministry is set to provide figures in its annual report in November.
    South Korea’s population-wide smoking rate fell from 47.8 percent in 2008 to 40.6 percent in 2015. The smoking rate increased to 40.7 percent in 2016.
    In January 2015, South Korea increased the price of cigarettes by 80 percent, from 2,500 won (US2.25) per pack to 4,500 won per pack, in an effort to curb smoking. And annual sales of cigarette packs duly dropped from 4.36 billion packs in 2014 to 3.32 billion packs in 2015; and though they rebounded to 3.66 billion packs in 2016, they dropped again to 3.44 billion packs last year.
    In 2016, the government forced tobacco companies to include graphic warnings on the upper part of both sides of cigarette packs.
    The Government has since said it plans to add 12 new graphic warnings, which, from December 23 will have to be included also on heated-tobacco products.

  • Dedicated HNB stores

    Dedicated HNB stores

    South Korea’s KT&G said yesterday that it would open on Wednesday Lil Minimalium, a flagship store dedicated to its heat-not-burn cigarette Lil, according to a story in The Korea Herald.
    Located in the Gangnam district of Seoul, the store would provide somewhere for customers to experience and buy the device and accessories, such as cases and pouches.
    In addition, special edition products, such as the Lil mini and crystal edition, offered in collaboration with Swarovski, would be on sale.
    And a repair service for Lil devices would be available also.
    The company says that it intends to open more flagship stores around the country, including in Songdo, Incheon, and Dongdaemun, Seoul.
    Since its launch in November last year, more than 850,000 Lil devices have been sold, according to KT&G.