Hong Kong is banning alternative smoking devices — the latest setback to the tobacco industry’s efforts to find growth markets as cigarette demand shrinks worldwide.
In a surprise reversal, the territory plans to impose a ban on e-cigarettes, a next-generation category of smokeless tobacco products, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) said in a policy address yesterday.
Hong Kong joins at least 27 nations that have banned next-generation smokeless devices, heeding advice from the WHO.
Photo: AP
The products have come under fire from health officials across the globe because of concerns about their appeal among young people.
The backlash is bad news for tobacco companies, which are investing billions of US dollars in developing products that could move the industry beyond cigarettes.
In its legislative proposal in June, the Hong Kong government had proposed only to regulate e-cigarettes the same way as conventional tobacco, including restricting their sale to minors and prohibiting advertisements and sponsorship.
Tobacco makers were looking to Hong Kong as a potential market for alternative devices.
A Philip Morris International Inc representative said it does not sell any of its new tobacco alternatives in Hong Kong, while Japan Tobacco Inc said it only sells paper cigarettes in the territory.
“A full ban of e-cigarettes will only make black market business more popular, not help to protect teenagers under 18 years old and consumers,” the Coalition on Tobacco Affairs said in a statement yesterday.
It added that none of its members are selling e-cigarettes or heat-not-burn devices in Hong Kong.
Japan Tobacco investors were unfazed by the news. Shares gained as much as 1.9 percent in Tokyo yesterday.
Philip Morris shares have tumbled about 27 percent from a peak in October last year.
The move comes as big tobacco companies have been increasingly pressured by tighter restrictions on smoking and the sale of cigarettes around the globe.
In the US, the largest market for e-cigarettes, regulators have taken a more severe stance on the devices after raising the alarms on their use by children and teenagers.
The US Food and Drug Administration said it is considering banning flavored versions of nicotine devices. Last month, it seized documents from Juul Labs Inc, which offers sleek e-cigarettes with flavors that appeal to underage users.
While some countries have taken a combative stance against e-cigarettes, others have looked to them as a way to curb smoking.
Regulators in several countries, including the UK and New Zealand, have backed the devices as potentially less risky compared with traditional cigarettes.
Hong Kong has one of the lowest smoking prevalence rates in the world, and about 10 percent of the population smokes, Bloomberg Intelligence data showed.
From India to China to the US, automakers cannot make vehicles — not that no one wants any, but because a more than US$450 billion industry for semiconductors got blindsided. How did both sides end up here? Over the past two weeks, automakers across the world have bemoaned the shortage of chips. Germany’s Audi, owned by Volkswagen AG, would delay making some of its high-end vehicles because of what chief executive officer Markus Duesmann called a “massive” shortfall in an interview with the Financial Times. The firm has furloughed more than 10,000 workers and reined in production. That is a further blow
MOBILE SMART: The Dimensity 1200 is 22 percent better in terms of performance than its predecessor, and 25 percent more power-efficient, the handset chip designer said MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday unveiled its premium 5G processors — the Dimensity 1200 and Dimensity 1100 — as it vies for a larger slice of the world’s rapidly growing 5G smartphone market. Manufactured using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) 6-nanometer process technology, the Dimensity 1200 processor performs 22 percent better than the previous generation Dimensity 1000+ processor, and is 25 percent more power-efficient, MediaTek said. Chinese smartphone brands Xiaomi Corp (小米) and Realme Mobile Telecommunications (Shenzhen) Co (銳爾覓移動通信) are to be the first adopters of the latest Dimensity chips, the companies said during a virtual media briefing. Xiaomi plans to equip its first
Answering to a reported request by Germany to help address a chip shortage in its auto industry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday said that it was in talks with domestic chip suppliers. Foreign media over the weekend reported that German Minister of Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier had sent a request to Taipei to ask Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to cooperate more closely with German automakers to provide microchips and sensors, to bridge a shortage that has emerged over the past few months. The MOEA said that it had not yet received the request and could therefore not elaborate
FOCUS ON FOUNDRIES: An analyst said that some investors would be disappointed because they were expecting a larger announcement of a partnership with TSMC Intel Corp’s incoming chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger on Thursday pledged to regain the company’s lead in chip manufacturing, countering growing calls from some investors to shed that part of its business. “I am confident that the majority of our 2023 products will be manufactured internally,” Gelsinger said. “At the same time, given the breadth of our portfolio, it’s likely that we will expand our use of external foundries for certain technologies and products.” He plans to provide more details after officially taking over the CEO role on Feb. 15, but Gelsinger was clear that Intel is sticking with its once mighty