A US$ 100 million investment project has been completed by Philip Morris Ukraine with the inauguration of a new tobacco plant near Kharkiv, report the Ukrainian media.

The 30 billion sticks per annum plant is built in the vicinity of Ukraine’s second largest city, to house the old production facility that PM has been running since 1994. PM is a persistent market leader in Ukraine with a share of 31 per cent of the market. The densely populated Kharkiv region, being the country’s largest industrial centre, is a big market for lower-end tobacco products and has a particular strategic importance in terms of beating off cheap contraband coming from the neighbouring Russia. (vt)