First Made-in-China Marlboro Cigarettes Roll Down Production Line

07/23/2008

The first batch of made-in-China Marlboro brand cigarettes rolled down the production line at Changsha Cigarette Factory in south central China's Hunan Province on July 18, 2008, signifying the initiation of commercialized production of the world's top cigarette brand in China, and also signifying a major progress of the tobacco industry of Hunan in international developing cooperation. In 2003, Changsha Cigarette Factory started the process of negotiations with Philip Morris on joint-venture production of Marlboro cigarettes in China, under the leadership and promotion of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) – the regulator of China's tobacco industry, which led to the signing of a bilateral agreement on trademark license and joint-venture production in 2005. In May 2008, Changsha Cigarette Factory achieved a complete success in trial production of Marlboro cigarettes, with all indexes in good performance, and with the rate of error in perfuming standing at only 5 per 10,000, meeting the technical standards for Marlboro and Marlboro Super Lights with almost perfect results. The success in trial production paved the way for commercialized production of Marlboro brand cigarettes in China. It was reported that after July 2008, all Marlboro brand cigarettes on sale at the marketplace in China will no longer be imported cigarettes, and will instead be those made in China, in realization of the target of substituting imports with homemade products. Enditem