Tobacco Asia

78 tobaccoasia Issue 4, 2025 July / August The extended 5-day May Day holiday in 2025 did not bring particularly strong sales figures for the cigarette market. From May onwards, China's cigarette market has generally continued the de- velopment characteristics seen in the first four months: there is a stability that holds the bottom line, but also a lack of vitality and quietness. The holiday neither made the cigarette consumption market better, nor made it worse. Compared to the weakness of the high-end and high-priced cigarette market last year, the "two highs" market (high-end and high-priced) in the first five months of this year has shown slight improvement. However, the pace of upgrading the cigarette product tiering has slowed, and overall tiering growth remains sluggish. Cigarette inventory remains high, and retailers still face the dual pressures of increasing costs and declining profits. These characteristics reflect, on one hand, the resilience and strategic depth of an ultra-large market, but also highlight an overall lack of genuine product innovation. Main consumption characteristics of the current cigarette market High-end market growth is sluggish; cigarettes priced around RMB150-200 per car- ton are becoming popular. Retailers widely report that high-end cigarettes move slowly with poor circulation. Most high-end cigarettes just end up at the retailer's shop. Cigarettes priced above RMB200 are particularly hard to sell. With changing consumption attitudes, the social attribute of high-end cigarettes is gradu- ally diminishing. Smoking is primarily to satisfy personal consumption needs. The emerging young consumer group no longer blindly believes in the brand effect of luxury goods; they have become more rational. "The Real Deal" products are sought after and welcomed. In the By TobaccoChina Online Insights into China's Evolving Tobacco Market Trends Cigarette inventory remains high and retailers still face increasing costs and declining profits.

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