Philip Morris International (PMI) second-quarter shipping volumes fell in all its major regions, creating a 3.9 per cent overall drop that the cigarette maker blamed on a general industry decline.

Shipments of the world’s largest selling brand, Marlboro, fell 5.9 per cent, PMI said in a statement.
Operating companies income dropped 7.3 per cent to USD 3.4 billion in the three months to July on sales down 2.5 per cent at USD 7.9 billion.
“Our second-quarter results were primarily impacted by lower industry volume in several key markets, as well as the timing of inventory movements in Japan, higher costs, predominantly in Asia, and stiffer currency headwinds”, said Chief Executive Officer André Calantzopoulos. “For the second half of the year, we expect volume/mix to improve.”
Volume in the European Union fell 5.9 per cent to 48.7 billion units, by 3.5 per cent in Asia to 80.6 billion units and by 3.6 per cent to 76.3 billion units in the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Latin America and Canada volume fell 2.4 per cent to 23.3 billion units.
Marlboro accounted for 72.4 billion units of the 228.9 billion PMI total. Shipments of L&M rose in the quarter by 6.1 per cent to 25.1 billion units as sales increased in Egypt. Bond Street brand shipments fell nearly 9 per cent to 11.6 billion units as sales declined in Russia and Ukraine, PMI said. Parliament shipments were down 4 per cent to 11.5 billion units and Chesterfield volume was 7.9 per cent lower at 8.9 billion units.
Countries where PMI reported a market share increase include Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.