Philip Morris International announced a EUR 500 million (USD 560 million) expansion of its Italian IQOS heat-sticks factory as the latest in a series of major investments to boost worldwide production to 100 billion sticks by late 2018.

PMI’s Crespellano plant near Bologna was the first large-scale production plant for Heets, which are filtered tobacco rods that are inserted into the IQOS tobacoo heating device to deliver a vapour instead of smoke. Expansion is expected to double the plant workforce to more than 1,200. IQOS was introduced in Italy in 2014, and the existing facility was complted in September, 2016.
A week ago PMI said it would invest USD 320 million to build an 80,000 m2 Heets production plant in Dresden, Germany. Cigarette plants in Greece, Romania and Russia also are being converted to Heets production.