US cigarette maker Lorillard has announced it will soon enter the market for moist smokeless tobacco products, but without giving details of the new product.

Lorillard also stated that an earlier joint venture with Swedish Match to develop a new snus product in the U.S. had been mutually terminated. In 2006 Lorillard entered into a joint venture with Swedish Match North America to develop and study the possibility of marketing a tobacco product for the U.S. market called Triumph Snus.
Swedish Match will continue selling its flagship snus brand General as well as its moist smokeless tobacco products Red Man and Timberwolf in the U.S. According to the company, the dissolution of the Lorillard joint venture has no bearing on its snus joint venture company with Philip Morris International which aims to distribute snus products outside the U.S. and Scandinavia.
Moist smokeless tobacco is popular in the U.S. with sales rising even as cigarette sales have dropped. Snus differs from most smokeless tobacco products in the U.S. as it is created through a special pasteurization process. (pi)