[Intl-tobacco] PM New Factory in Kazakhstan

[Robert Weissman]

Philip Morris opens $14-mln tobacco factory in Kazakhstan - Interfax
 November 4, 2003

 Almaty - Philip Morris has launched a $14- million tobacco processing
factory in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

 The financing for this project was provided in excess of the company's
investment obligations to Kazakhstan, the head of Philip Morris
International's Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa division said.

 The factory will process up to 7.5 tonnes of tobacco a day. It will
process 9,500-10,000 tonnes in the next six months, Vadim Teplukhin,
production manager at Philip Morris Kazakhstan, told Interfax.

 Most of the processed tobacco will be sold locally, with some exported
to Russia, Latvia and Ukraine.

 Philip Morris has since 1993 owned a cigarette factory in Kazakhstan
with capacity for 25 billion cigarettes per year. The company has so far
invested $323 million in the country's tobacco industry.

 Residents of Kazakhstan smoke an estimated 21 billion cigarettes per
year, with Philip Morris supplying 16.45 billion.