Japan Tobacco International (JTI) cigarette shipments in the fourth quarter fell 3 per cent due to trade inventory reduction in Russia and Mideast turmoil, the company said.

Global flagship brand shipments Winston, Camel, LD and Mevius gained a half per cent. Gross volume for the full year dipped 1 per cent to 393.9 billion sticks, of which 98.4 billion sticks was reported for the fourth quarter. Global brands rose 4.3 per cent to account for 273.6 billion sticks of the total last year, of which 68.2 billion sticks, a gain of 0.5 per cent, were shipped in the final business quarter.
Heavily influenced by adverse currency movements, operating profit fell by one third in the final three months of the last year to USD 543 million (EUR 495 million). At constant currency, JTI said the decline was 0.2 per cent. For the year, adjusted operating profit fell 23.4 per cent to USD 3.26 billion as the yen appreciated against the US dollar. At constant currency, operating profit would have increased nearly 11 per cent.
At parent company Japan Tobacco (JT), domestic volume dipped 2.8 per cent to 109.2 billion sticks. Adjusted operating profit increased 6.4 per cent to JPY 254.1 billion (EUR 1.9 billion).
JT said the group’s tobacco business adjusted operating profit should continue to expand in mid-to-high single digits in the mid-to-long term. “Our international tobacco business has remained the profit growth engine of the JT Group,” said Chief Executive Officer Mitsuomi Koizumi. “We delivered another year of double-digit profit growth in US dollars at constant currency, while increasing investments for long-term sustainable growth.”