Society

Japan Tobacco to launch new smokeless product this year

Feb 08 (Japan Today) - Japan Tobacco Inc plans to launch a new "heat-not-burn" (HNB) product in Japan as early as the end of this year, as it tries to catch Philip Morris International (PM.N) in a growing cigarette-alternative category.

Japan Tobacco is under pressure to keep its dominance in the domestic market where its sales of conventional cigarettes fell to the lowest since the former state monopoly was reorganized to the current company in 1985. Japan Tobacco is still one-third government-owned.

It said it would spend more than 100 billion yen over the next three years on development and production of what it calls "reduced-risk products (RRP)," or cigarette alternatives that do not use combustion to deliver nicotine.

"For Japan Tobacco's continuous growth, we must win in the RRP category," Chief Executive Officer Masamichi Terabatake said at an earnings briefing.

Japan has become a fertile market for HNB products as the country's regulations effectively ban e-cigarettes that use nicotine-laced liquid. Tobacco makers have been struggling to ship enough products to meet demand as a growing number of smokers switch to these smokeless tobacco offerings.

Mizuho Securities analyst Hiroshi Saji estimated HNB products will account for 29 percent of Japan's tobacco market this year, up from 16 percent in 2017. He estimated Philip Morris to keep its lead in the HNB market with a 76.2 percent share, with the rest evenly held by Japan Tobacco and British American Tobacco PLC.

Japan Tobacco, which commands over 60 percent of the domestic cigarette market, lags behind Philip Morris, which launched its IQOS device in Japan in 2014 and expanded nationwide in April 2016.

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