Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT) shipped 47.4 billion sticks in the January-July period, down 13.3 per cent on the 54.7 billion units it shipped in the first half of 2017, the cigarette maker said reporting preliminary sales results for July.

JT said its domestic market share remained stable, at 62.1 per cent for July 2018, and 61.6 per cent for the half-year period January-July 2018, but sales volume and revenue from cigarette sales continued to drop. The company's shipment volume for the first half of 2018 was down 13.3 per cent compared to the 54.7 billion sticks shipped in the first half of 2017 which was, in turn, down 11.3 per cent on first half shipments in 2016.
Domestic cigarette revenue for the period, at JPY 283 billion (EUR 2.24 billion), was down 13 per cent on the JPY 325.3 billion generated from cigarette sales in the first half of 2017.