In this photo taken Oct. 11, 2023, and provided by KT&G, the company’s CEO Baek Bok-in (3rd from R), Almaty Gov. Marat Sultangaziyev (3rd from L), Korean Consul General in Almaty Park Nae-cheon (2nd from L) and other officials attend the groundbreaking ceremony for KT&G’s fourth overseas plant in Kazakhstan. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — KT&G Corp., South Korea’s dominant tobacco company, said Thursday it has begun construction in Kazakhstan of its fourth overseas plant as part of its expansion strategy.
KT&G aims to complete the plant’s construction by 2025 to export its products to the Eurasian region, the company said in a statement.
The company didn’t provide the value of its investment in Kazakhstan.
Last month, KT&G announced its plan to build its second plant in Indonesia, with an aim of starting operations in 2026 and exporting products to neighboring and foreign countries.
The Korean tobacco firm aims to earn half of its sales from overseas businesses in 2027. It wants to achieve sales of 10 trillion won in 2027, compared with 5.9 trillion won in 2022.
While focusing on the conventional cigarette business, the company said it will reinforce its heat-not-burn (HNB) and health functional food product businesses.
HNB products are electronic devices that, unlike e-cigarettes, contain tobacco. The tobacco is heated to a high temperature without setting it alight and creating smoke that the user inhales.
KT&G has exported its HNB products to more than 30 countries since 2020 through the sales networks of the New York-based PMI.
The company earns 90 percent of its overall sales from the cigarette business division and the remaining 10 percent from the HNB division.
KT&G currently has four tobacco manufacturing plants, one each in South Korea, Russia, Turkey and Indonesia, whose combined capacity amounts to 13.6 billion cigarettes a year.
(Yonhap)
