Philippine: Philip Morris 3Q Cigarette Output Down 1.5%

Source from:  Manila Bulletin 10/22/2015

Tobacco giant Philip Morris International said that business fundamentals in the Philippines continue to improve despite the decline in shipment volume in the third-quarter.

In its July to September financial report, Philip Morris said that its Philippine cigarette shipments reached 17.19 billion sticks during the quarter, down 1.5 percent from 17.45 billion in the same period last year.

The third-quarter results brought Philip Morris' total shipments from January to September to drop by two percent year-on-year to 49.82 billion from 50.86 billion.

With the decline in cigarette volume, Philip Morris' market share at end-September in local tax-paid tobacco industry also dropped 3.6 basis points to 80.4 percent from 84 percent in the same period last year.

"The underlying business fundamentals in the Philippines continue to improve, though market share trends based on the total tax-paid cigarette market remain distorted due to higher estimated tax declarations by our principal local competitor," Jacek Olczak, PMI chief financial officer, said. Enditem