Philip Morris International cigarette shipment volume fell 5.1 per cent last year, driven by an excise tax increase in the Philippines that caused PMI’s market there to contract by 26.2 per cent, the company said.

Global shipment volume in the final three months of last year fell 4.3 per cent to 223.2 billion sticks, but only 1.9 per cent excluding the Philippines. The full year decline in volume was 2.7 per cent excluding the Philippines, PMI said. Last year the company shipped 880.2 billion cigarettes. Marlboro shipments represent 291.1 billion of total units, a drop of 3.5 per cent.
Unfavourable foreign-exchange movements resulted in a decline of 1.8 per cent in reported operating companies income (OCI) to USD 3.2 billion (EUR 2.4 billion) in the fourth quarter, the company said. OCI for the full year dropped 2.7 per cent to USD 13.8 billion. Full year sales in 2013 were USD 31.2 billion, down 0.5 per cent.
“In the Philippines, the total industry cigarette volume decreased by 15.6 per cent to an estimated 86.3 billion units in 2013, primarily reflecting the unfavourable impact of the disruptive excise-tax increase in January, 2013, and a surge in the prevalence of domestic non-duty paid products. PMI’s shipment volume of 68.5 billion units decreased by 26.2 per cent … PMI’s market share decreased by 11.4 points to 79.3 per cent, primarily due to down-trading,” the company said.