China

Niche cigarette products have turned out to be powerful weapons for China’s tobacco industry in their efforts to revive cigarette sales and reverse an unprecedented sales slump last year.

China’s cigar market has ushered in a new round of robust growth as the four major tobacco industrial companies launched operations to significantly upgrade products and sharpen their competitive edge.

China’s tobacco industry is undergoing a shift from being a distributor to providing services that increase the value of retail outlets. This is brought about by emerging new business changes spawned by the internet and mobile interconnectivity.

As the new generation of Chinese consumers born in the 1990s emerges as a leading force of consumption in China, an important marketing focus for brands is on how to win favor from this group.

Davidoff Cigars is introducing its new limited-edition cigar line and accompanying accessories to mark the Chinese Year of the Dog.

More than 170 representatives from the tobacco industry all over China gather to summarize the work of cigarette network construction and to exchange and share experiences.

Tobacco production in China, rooted in the vast rural areas, is both the foundation of the country’s sustained and healthy development of its tobacco industry as well as being an important means of support for farmers in poverty-stricken areas.

The rapid development of fine cigarettes in China in recent years has brought higher requirements to domestic cigarette manufacturers in device segmentation.

The newly minted Tobacco Authority of Thailand plans to introduce its Chinese cigarettes to the market this October, targeting the increasing number of Chinese visitors to the country.

It is no longer just growers and associations seeking alternative crops to tobacco production. The industry itself has already surrendered to this transition.

More than 50,000 visitors, 1,500 brand owners, and 350 domestic and foreign media from 45 countries participated in the expo.

Nowadays, various types of innovative cigarettes have kept coming on to the market. Under the strong lead of the Chunghwa brand, medium-sized cigarettes have gradually come into public view, trendsetting the industry’s next tide.

GIMA TT has signed in an agreement with Shanghai Tobacco Machinery Co. Ltd. to supply lines for the packaging of cigarettes.

China National Tobacco Corporation signed a memorandum of strategic cooperation with China’s internet giants Alibaba Group and Ant Financial in a move has had a large impact on the industry.

As the Chinese market evolves, two trends have become very clear: one is the upgrading of consumption, and the other is the rationalization of high-end consumption.

Tobacco products have been caught in the crossfire of the US-China trade war after theTrump administration’s latest tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods which came into effect on September 24.

In recent years, heat-not-burn tobacco products, with the significant advantage of reducing the release of harmful components, have gradually become an important r&d direction for Big Tobacco, leading HNBs’ market share to grow rapidly.

Major merchants resort to various “singular tricks,” such as adopting “experiential marketing” and setting up offline experience stores, which are the main means for major brands to attract the attention of consumers.