Structural Change of Cigarette Products Drives Down Industrial Growth

Source from:  Xinhuanet.com 09/26/2005

A change of the structure of cigarette products and a decline in cigarette output in southwest China's Yunnan Province contributed to driving down the growth of the province's light industry over the first eight months of 2005. In August, Yunnan produced 26.753 billion cigarettes (535,100 cases), an increase of 12.8 percent over July, and basically on a par with that of the same month of 2004, according to statistics from Yunnan Provincial Statistics Bureau. From January to August, Yunnan produced 211.364 billion cigarettes (4.2273 million cases), down 2.3 percent from the same period of 2004, with the decline greater than that of the first six months of the year by 2.1 percentage points. In the eight-month period, Yunnan produced 20.705 billion Grade One cigarettes (414,100 cases), down 28,700 cases (1.435 billion cigarettes), or 6.5 percent, year-from-year; 56.79 billion Grade Two cigarettes (1.1358 million cases), down 37,300 cases (1.865 billion cigarettes), or 3.2 percent; 111.385 billion (2.2277 million cases) Grade Three cigarettes, down 18,400 cases (920 million cigarettes), or 0.8 percent; and 22.48 billion (449,600 cases) Grade Four and Grade Five cigarettes, down 15,200 cases (760 million cigarettes), or 3.3 percent. In the first eight months, the proportions of cigarette products of all grades in the total cigarette output of Yunnan were respectively: Grade One cigarettes - 9.8 percent, down 0.43 percent year-from-year; Grade Two - 26.9 percent, down 0.24 percent; Grade Three - 52.7 percent, up 0.79 percent year-on-year; and Grade Four and Grade Five - 10.6 percent, down 0.11 percent. Sources with Yunnan Provincial Statistics Bureau said that the structural change of cigarette products and the decline in cigarette output both contributed to bringing down the growth of the light industry of Yunnan in the eight-month period. To make up for the shortage, the light industry of Yunnan needs to strengthen market development and increase production. But it still seems difficult to fill up the big gap. Enditem