Large Chinese Tobacco Manufacturer Gets Good Report Card in January-June

Source from:  mofcom.gov.cn 07/23/2007

Hongyun Group in southwest China's tobacco-producing Yunnan Province - the second largest China tobacco manufacturer - got a good report card on both cigarette production and trade in the first half of 2007, with its core competitiveness significantly going up. From January to June, Hongyun Group produced over 68 billion cigarettes (over 1.36 million cases) and sold nearly 69 billion cigarettes (nearly 1.38 million cases), with the proportions of Grades One, Two and Three cigarettes in the total cigarette output respectively going up 57 percent, 176 percent and 28 percent. In the January-June period, Hongyun Group earned nearly 14.4 billion yuan (nearly 1.89 billion U.S. dollars) in sales income, up 26 percent year-on-year, including over 11.4 billion yuan (over 1.5 billion U.S. dollars) in taxes and profits, roughly up 35 percent year-on-year, with the amount of profits alone going up nearly 41 percent year-on-year, and with the single-case amount of taxes and profits reaching nearly 8,300 yuan (nearly 1,092 U.S. dollars), roughly up 25 percent year-on-year. For Shanxi Kunming Tobacco Co., Ltd. in north China's Shanxi Province in which Hongyun Group holds a controlling stake, it produced over 7.5 billion cigarettes (over 150,000 cases) in the January-June period, with the amount of taxes and profits going up 40 percent year-on-year. Likewise, Inner Mongolia Kunming Cigarette Co., Ltd. in north China's Inner Mongolia Region in which Hongyun Group holds shares produced over 8 billion cigarettes (over 160,000 cases) in the six-month period, with the amount of taxes and profits going up 36 percent year-on-year. From January to June, the market scale of serial products of Yunyan - the core cigarette brand of Hongyun Group - reached 28 billion cigarettes (560,000 cases), generating 7.3 billion yuan (960 million U.S. dollars) in taxes and profits; and the market scale of its Hongshancha (The Red Camellia) brand cigarettes reached over 35 billion cigarettes (over 700,000 cases). Besides, Yunyan (Hard Precious) -- a new high-grade member of the Yunyan brand family - made its debut at the marketplace in June. It is expected that Hongyun Group will be able to realize ahead of schedule the targets of increasing the annual output of Yunyan to over 1 million cases (over 50 billion cigarettes), generating over 10 billion yuan (over 1.3 billion U.S. dollars) in annual taxes and profits, and increasing the annual output of Hongshancha to over 1 million cases (over 50 billion cigarettes) by the end of 2007. Enditem