The 2021 e-cigarette industry blue book wasjointly released by the e-cigarette Industry Committee of China ElectronicChamber of Commerce and volume think tank. The report shows that at present,there are more than 1500 domestic e-cigarette manufacturing and brandenterprises, more than 190000 e-cigarette retail outlets, and nearly 100000e-cigarette supply chain and surrounding service enterprises. The domestice-cigarette industry directly employed about 1.5 million people, driving 4 millionindirect jobs, a total of about 5.5 million people.
Ao Weinuo, Secretary General of theelectronic cigarette industry committee, released domestic and internationalmarket data on site.
Zhao Tong, founder and CEOof volume think tank, explained the main data of the report
In terms of market scale, in 2021, theestimated retail sales of electronic atomized cigarettes in the world reachedUS $80 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 120%, and it is expected tomaintain a growth rate of 35% in the next three years; Domestic retail sales in2021 are estimated to be 19.7 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of36%.
In terms of export, China's e-cigaretteindustry exported about 138.3 billion yuan in 2021, a year-on-year increase of180%; The top four destination countries or regions of export volume are theUnited States, the European Union, Russia and the United Kingdom, accountingfor 53%, 15%, 9% and 7% respectively.
In terms of patents, from 2003 to October31, 2021, the total number of domestic patents applied for was 26403, of whichliquid electronic cigarette accounted for 93.4%. On the whole, the past threeyears are the period of concentrated emergence of e-cigarette patents;Guangdong Province is a major province in the application of e-cigarettepatents, accounting for more than 60%. Private enterprises are the main forcein the application of patents, accounting for nearly 90%.
According to the blue book, the domesticmarket scale (retail) of e-cigarettes in 2021 is expected to be 19.7 billionyuan, a year-on-year increase of 36%; The global market scale (retail) isexpected to be US $80 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 120% and athree-year compound growth rate of 35%. This year, China's total export ofe-cigarettes reached 138.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 180%; Thecountry with the largest exports is the United States, accounting for more thanhalf, followed by the European Union and Russia.
It can be seen from the above data that thesales volume of overseas e-cigarette market has reached 492.3 billion yuan.Compared with that, the Chinese market is still very weak. Not only China'sexports are growing rapidly, but the scale of overseas retail sales is alsogrowing very rapidly, which is beyond the reach of ordinary electronicproducts.
In 2019, the trump administration launchedan attack on e-cigarettes. At that time, there were rumors that lung diseaseswere caused by e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes faced a public opinion crisis. Later,it was found that marijuana smokers added a vitamin. In addition, the U.S.government also stipulated that most fruit flavored e-cigarettes could not besold, and some U.S. retail channels also decided not to sell e-cigarettes. Atthat time, Chinese enterprises' exports suddenly stalled and industry leaderswere laying off workers. As can be seen from this year's data, the UnitedStates, as the number one consumer of e-cigarettes, has taken the lead inrecovering from the market.
2019 is also the peak of China'se-cigarette investment, or affected by the negative news of the overseasmarket, most of the e-cigarette investment favored Chinese domestic salesbrands. Previously, China's e-cigarettes were basically all for export, andthere were e-cigarettes sold in the Chinese market, but it has not become avaluable product, and the acceptance of e-cigarettes is quite low. After manyfunds entered in 2019, the domestic e-cigarette market began to really start.