Cigarette shipment volume at Philip Morris International (PMI) dipped 1.3 per cent to 236.5 billion sticks in the third quarter as volume in the European Union dropped 8.1 per cent, or more 5.4 billion sticks, the company said in a statement.

Shipment volume of PMI’s most popular brand, Marlboro, fell 2.3 per cent to 77.1 billion units.
“Despite the difficult comparisons in the third-quarter, we remain confident that the fundamentals of our business are solid as a whole, which is testament to our progress, especially in our Asia and EEMA (Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa) regions,” said Chief Executive Officer Louis Camilleri. “We expect to achieve our annual organic volume growth target of 1 per cent in 2012,” he said.
Operating companies income fell 1.5 per cent to USD 3.7 billion (EUR 2.8 billion) and sales were down 5.3 per cent at USD 7.9 billion. Revenue was negatively impacted by currency fluctuations in the three months ending 30 Sept, and supported by price increases, PMI said. (ci)