Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1541387
Tobacco Asia 77 www.nicotineusp.com sales@nicotineusp.com NICOTINE IN ITS PUREST FORM 2025 saw 11.9% year-on-year growth, driven by overseas cigarette and HTP sales. If that pace continues, KT&G could close 2025 at roughly KRW6.2 tril- lion, keeping it broadly on track to reach KRW10 trillion by 2027—provided overseas and next-generation product (NGP) segments continue delivering double-digit gains. Performing above plan KT&G's overseas combustibles business is performing above plan and re- mains its strongest growth driver. The company has invested heavily in new factories and capacity expansion. In April 2025, KT&G completed construction of its fourth overseas factory in the Almaty region of Kazakhstan, a US$135 million investment. With an annual capacity of 4.5 billion cigarettes, the plant will serve as a pro- duction hub for exports to the Eurasian region, including the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Three months earlier, the company celebrated the expansion of its plant in Tire, Izmir, Turkiye. KT&G invested more than US$60 million to install two new high-tech manufacturing lines. The factory—its first overseas site, opened in 2008—was expanded by 1.5 times to 25,000 square meters. With 4 cigarette-making machines, it now has the capacity to produce 12 billion cigarettes annually. The Turkiye facility serves as KT&G's outpost and core manufacturing base for exports to North African and Latin American mar- kets, which are showing steady growth. Indonesia, however, remains the company's biggest overseas invest- ment. In April 2024, KT&G began construction of its second and third man- ufacturing sites in Surabaya, which together will span 190,000 square meters and add 21 billion sticks of annual capacity. Operations are set to begin in 2026. By then, KT&G's three Indonesian plants will have a combined an- nual production capacity of 35 billion cigarettes—its largest global production Under the leadership of c.e.o. Bang Kyung-man, KT&G is largely on course to achieve its 2027 Vision. Credit: KT&G.