Cigarettes in South Korea - New Market Study Published

From: Fast Market Research, Inc.
Published: Fri Oct 30 2015


During 2014, cigarettes in South Korea generated positive growth in both volume and current value terms for the first time since 2009. The main reason for this was that many consumers stockpile cigarettes after government announced impending increases in the rate of taxation levied on cigarettes during September 2014, which are very positive effect on overall volume sales of cigarettes, resulting in the category increasing by over the course of the year. The tax increase announced during September saw the level of tax levied on tobacco increase by KRW1718.5 per pack of 20 cigarettes on 1 January 2015. As the result, consumers and retailers tended to buy up cigarettes at the old price between the government’s announcement in September and the position of the tax increase at the start of January. This led to a shortage of cigarettes in retail outlets throughout the final quarter of 2014.

Full Report Details at
- http://www.fastmr.com/prod/1062863_cigarettes_south_korea.aspx?afid=301

Competitive Landscape

KT&G Corp maintained the leading position in cigarettes in 2014 with a 62% volume share. According to the company, its volume sales increased by more than 8% during the fourth quarter of 2014 in comparison with the same period of 2013. Due to the government’s announcement in September regarding the impending increase in taxation due in 2015, volume sales of cigarettes were concentrated during the fourth quarter. In addition, news that the prices charged for some imported brands were to increase from around the middle of January 2015 encouraged consumers to change to domestic brands during December, with the result that KT&G’s domestic brands gained more volume sales at the last moment towards the end of 2014. Based on data exchange materials among top four manufacturers, the volume share of KT&G in cigarettes soared to 64% during December 2014.

Industry Prospects

In 2015, cigarettes in South Korea is expected to decrease by 5% in volume terms, although value sales are set to increase by 65% in constant 2014 terms due to the 74% increase expected in the average unit price of cigarettes during 2015. Due to increasing price of cigarettes, many consumers stocked up on cigarettes towards the end of 2014 and they did not purchase cigarettes during the early months of 2015 as they smoked their way through the cigarettes they had purchased during 2014. In addition, more smokers decided to quit smoking during the New Year period in 2015 than in previous years due to the motivation provided by strong unit price increases. As a result, in 2015, cigarettes is set to record the highest rate of decrease since 2011.

Report Overview

Discover the latest market trends and uncover sources of future market growth for the Cigarettes industry in South Korea with research from Euromonitor's team of in-country analysts.

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You may also be interested in these related reports:

- Cigarettes in South Africa
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- Tobacco Product Market in South Korea to 2019 - Market Size, Development, and Forecasts
- Tobacco in South Korea

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