Research Report on China's Cigarette Industry, 2010-2012

Dec. 20, 2010 - PRLog -- www.cri-report.com - China is the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco products. The tobacco industry in China plays an important role in the national economy, and is an important source of China's government fiscal revenue. China's tobacco industry is a highly controversial industry. On the one hand, as a government monopoly, the tobacco industry brings enormous profits and taxes to the Chinese government and its state-owned tobacco producing and marketing enterprises. On the other hand, the support has grown for the requirements to restrict the tobacco industry due to the harm of smoking in China and the whole world.

In 2010, there are about 410 million smokers in China, accounting for about 30% of the total population, and about one quarter of the world's smoking population, of which more than 20 million are women. As a special commodity, the cigarette plays multiple roles of necessity, gift, etc. in social life. To Chinese smokers, cigarettes not only act as daily consumer goods but also are endowed with sociality and other meanings. With sustainable development of the Chinese economy, Chinese smokers are increasing their demand level of cigarettes, and medium and high-grade cigarettes are occupying increasingly a higher proportion.

In 2009, China's tobacco industry produced 2290.90 billion cigarettes, increasing by 4.10% YOY; the sales volume of cigarettes reached 2286.30 billion, increasing by 3.70% YOY.
The market concentration of China's tobacco industry is on the rise. The number of China's cigarette brands could even reach 2,400. In 2002, the number of cigarette brands produced in the whole industry reached 758, which reduced to 582 in 2003. With the intensified efforts to integrate China's cigarette brands, the number of brands produced in China's cigarette industry had fallen to about 150 by the end of 2009. China's tobacco industry are undergoing M&A, and some M&A activities have improved the competitiveness of enterprises, while some others just aim at being in the vogue to a large extent.

Currently, high import tariffs keep imported cigarettes from entering China in large numbers. Therefore, foreign cigarettes with big advantages in price and quality are entering Chinese market by smuggling in large numbers. Take ""555"" cigarettes owned by British American Tobacco Co., Ltd. for example, ""555"" cigarettes are imported cigarettes with a large sales volume in China. The sales price of each package of legally imported ""555"" cigarettes (20 cigarettes for each package) in China's reaches over USD 2, while that of smuggled ""555"" cigarettes (20 cigarettes for each package) produced by Vietnam in Chinese market is only USD 1.5, indicating the obvious price advantage. The cigarette smuggling market scale in China is estimated to be over USD 5 billion annually, while the import value of China's legal cigarettes reported by China Customs was only USD 76.02 million in 2009, which still sees a downward trend in 2010.
China's cigarette market has a great fascination for the world's tobacco enterprises. China's cigarette market will be open to the outside world sooner or later, in spite of the unknown consumed time in this process.

Following and more information can be acquired from this report:
-Status Quo of China's Cigarette Industry
-History and Status Quo of China's Cigarette Monopoly System
-China's Cigarette Price System
-China's Major Domestic Cigarette Manufacturers and Their Cigarette Brands
-Retail Prices of Major Brands in Chinese Market
-Import & Export Situation of China's Cigarette Industry
-Investment Opportunities in China's Cigarette Industry

Following people are recommended to buy this report:
-Cigarette Manufacturers
-Cigarette Trade Enterprises
-Related Enterprises of Cigarette Industry Chain
-Investors and Research Institutions Focusing on China's Cigarette Industry

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China Research and Intelligence is a market research company based in Shanghai, China. More information can be viewed on website: http://www.cri-report.com.