Philip Morris USA said a slowing industry rate of decline and gains in market share boosted its cigarette shipments last year by 0.5 per cent to 126 billion sticks.

The Marlboro maker said overall US industry volume contracted an estimated half-per cent last year, and was flat in the fourth quarter. PM USA reported a 2.6 per cent volume decline for the last three months of 2015, but said it would have been a half-per cent gain when adjusted for inventory movements.
Smokeless products at USSTC, led by Copenhagen moist-snuff, rose 2.5 per cent last year to 813.5 million units; and by 4 per cent to 208.5 million units in the fourth-quarter.
Parent company Altria, which also owns a wine subsidiary, an alternative tobacco products unit and a cigar company, said it planned a cost-cutting initiative that would save an estimated USD 300 million (EUR 276 million) by the end of 2017. About 490 jobs will be eliminated, Altria said.
Smokeable products adjusted operating companies income rose 10.9 per cent to USD 7.6 billion, and by 4.3 per cent to USD 1.8 billion in the final business quarter. Last year the adjusted operating profit margin was 46.4 per cent compared with 44.1 per cent in 2014, Altria said.