Picture source: CCTV network

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics a few days ago, China's foreign trade maintained growth in the first quarter, with a strong performance of goods exports, an increase of 8.4 percent over the same period last year. In March, the total volume of imports and exports totaled 3.7094 trillion yuan, up 15.5 percent over the same period last year, of which exports totaled 2.1552 trillion yuan, up 23.4 percent, higher than market expectations. Fu Linghui, spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics and director of the National Economic Statistics Department, said on the same day that China's stable foreign trade policy will continue to be effective in the next stage.

Under the background of China's economic recovery and the rapid growth of exports, what about the development of Chinese e-cigarette production enterprises that have accelerated to go to sea since the implementation of the new management rules last year? What are their expectations for China's e-cigarettes to go out to sea? CCTV reporter, together with the two supremacy of the global atomization science and technology think tank, recently visited relevant enterprises to investigate the relevant situation.

Enterprises in the largest exporter of e-cigarettes in the world actively seize the overseas market.

China is the world's largest manufacturer and exporter of e-cigarettes. In recent years, China's e-cigarette exports have been increasing. According to the 2022 Electronic cigarette Industry Export Blue Book (Blue Book) jointly produced by the Electronic cigarette Professional Committee of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce (E-cigarette Special Committee) and Shenzhen two Supreme Science and Technology Co., Ltd., China's e-cigarette exports are expected to reach 186.7 billion yuan in 2022, an increase of 35% over the same period last year. In 2020, exports reached 49.4 billion yuan, an increase of 180% over the same period last year; in 2021, exports reached 138.3 billion yuan, an increase of 180% over the same period last year.

The Blue Book also shows that there are currently more than 1500 e-cigarette manufacturing and brand enterprises in China, and more than 70% of the enterprises mainly export their products overseas. There are nearly 100000 e-cigarette supply chain and surrounding service enterprises. Among them, there are about 13000 enterprises directly related to the industry and more than 82000 indirectly related enterprises. E-cigarette patent applications have sprung up in the past three years. During the three years from 2019 to 2021, there were more than 5000 patent applications each year. According to the two supreme statistics, China added a total of 6248 new patents for e-cigarettes (including heated non-combustible products) in 2022.

At present, China's main export destinations for e-cigarettes include the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Russia and ASEAN. During the visit, the reporter learned that almost all e-cigarette manufacturers are actively adapting to local regulatory policies and consumer habits to seize overseas markets.

Love miracle (Shenzhen) technology co., Ltd. (referred to as love miracle) is a leading e-cigarette enterprise located in Shenzhen. Jiang Hui, senior vice president of love miracle, told reporters that e-cigarette, as a kind of new business type, has formed "made in China." the industrial pattern of "world consumption", the whole e-cigarette industry is constantly transforming to standardization, standardization and internationalization.

Strengthening supervision is conducive to the orderly development of the industry and the protection of minors has become a global consensus.

The strengthening of supervision is conducive to the orderly development of the entire e-cigarette industry, which is almost the consensus of the interviewed e-cigarette production enterprises. all the interviewed enterprises said that since the implementation of the "measures for the Administration of E-cigarettes" (referred to as the "measures") on May 1, 2022, it has completed the license application and export filing work in accordance with the requirements of the management measures, and carried out production and operation activities in strict accordance with the regulatory requirements.

Looking at the world, tighter regulation seems to be the overall trend of the global e-cigarette market. According to the two latest monthly reports on global regulation of e-cigarettes, there were more than 170 regulatory incidents worldwide in March 2023. Guo Xiaoyu, co-founder and chief operating officer of Shenzhen Supreme Technology Co., Ltd., said in an interview that the global e-cigarette market has entered a period of regulatory change, and countries have adjusted and introduced e-cigarette regulatory policies. Chinese e-cigarette brands should adapt to global policy changes. During the visit, a number of companies believe that the biggest uncertainty in the overseas e-cigarette market lies in local regulatory policies.

Bai Feng, CMO of Shenzhen Youville Technology Co., Ltd. (Youville for short), told reporters that in the past, with the continuous expansion of the market and the rapid development of the industry, behind the "rough" operation and "barbaric growth" logic of some e-cigarette manufacturers, incidents of fake and shoddy products occurred frequently. In order to curb this phenomenon, countries around the world began to put forward requirements for the standardization of the industry. A series of regulatory policies and access regulations have been formulated and promulgated, such as export to the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and other countries and regions.

Bai Feng also said, "going out to sea needs to adapt to different regulatory policies in different places, and there are also channel differences, cultural differences, consumer habits differences and other problems." The global regulatory policies on e-cigarettes are different, and the demand of markets and consumers for e-cigarettes products varies from country to country, which requires manufacturers to take corresponding measures and research and development according to local specific conditions. from R & D and production to product packaging, logistics and transportation, promotion and sales, we should pay attention to every link and strictly abide by laws and regulations and cultural differences. "

Yunnan Yunshuo Technology Co., Ltd. (Yunshuo Technology for short) is a high-tech enterprise integrating R & D, production and sales of flavors and fragrances. Hu Xin, president of Yunshuo Technology, believes that at present, the supervision of e-cigarettes is gradually strengthening not only in China, but also around the world. China's e-cigarettes going out to sea to meet the requirements of local laws and regulations is not only a minimum standard, but also a kind of elimination and screening mechanism. through supervision, raising the threshold, such as restrictions on nicotine, requirements for flavors and spices, prohibition or restriction on the use of certain substances, are the protection of consumers.

The reporter noted that all countries are strengthening the protection of minors, and in order to actively cooperate with local regulatory policies, the practices of Chinese e-cigarette manufacturers are quite similar. Mainly from the outer packaging of the product, the official website to the store terminal, etc., significantly identify the relevant warnings, emphasizing the importance of the protection of minors. And carry out innovations in product technology, such as adding children's locks in the design of cigarette sets to prevent children from misusing and smoking e-cigarettes, and explicitly forbidding the sale of e-cigarettes to minors in channels and sales control. and agreed on the corresponding liability for breach of contract and punishment measures, once found, will be given the corresponding punishment. Jiang Hui, senior vice president of Love Miracle, told reporters that in December last year, Love Miracle created the "Lighthouse Project", which aims to assume the responsibility of protecting minors and advocate the protection concept of "minors are prohibited from using e-cigarette products" around the world. In addition, the German market, as the pilot market for the company's first batch of child lock products, has received good feedback.

Shenzhen continues to maintain the position of the country's largest e-cigarette export city and has obvious advantages in the industrial chain.

In the e-cigarette industry, a popular saying is "Global e-cigarettes look at China, Chinese e-cigarettes look at Shenzhen, Shenzhen e-cigarettes look at Baoan."

Shenzhen is an important place for the production and export of e-cigarettes in the world. According to Shenzhen Customs statistics, Shenzhen's e-cigarette exports increased by nearly 40% in the first two months of this year. In 2022, Shenzhen exported 46.09 billion yuan of e-cigarettes, accounting for 68.3% of the country's total export value. In the first two months of this year, Shenzhen exported 7.1 billion yuan of e-cigarettes, an increase of 38.9% over the same period last year, accounting for 66.9% of the country's total e-cigarette exports, and continued to maintain its position as the country's largest e-cigarette export city.

At the same time, Shenzhen Customs said that Shenzhen e-cigarette exports have two major characteristics, one is that most of them are exported by private enterprises in general trade. In the first two months, Shenzhen's private enterprises exported 6.09 billion yuan, an increase of 42%, accounting for 85.8% of Shenzhen's total e-cigarette exports in the same period. In the same period, exports totaled 6.53 billion yuan in general trade, an increase of 40.5 percent, accounting for 92.1 percent. Second, it is mainly sold to mainstream consumer markets such as Europe and the United States, and the proportion of exports to the United States has declined. In the first two months, Shenzhen's exports to the United States totaled 2.29 billion yuan, down 20.1 percent, accounting for 32.3 percent of Shenzhen's total e-cigarette exports in the same period (the same below). It was still the largest market for Shenzhen's e-cigarette exports, but it accounted for 5.8 percent lower than in 2022. Over the same period, exports to the European Union, the United Kingdom and Russia increased by 1.9 times, 90% and 2.7 times, respectively, accounting for 40.9%. In addition, exports to ASEAN totaled 420 million yuan, up 1.3 times, accounting for 6 percent.

In the view of Jiang Hui, senior vice president of Love Miracle, Shenzhen Customs released e-cigarette export data for the first time, giving a shot in the arm to overseas enterprises in this industry. He said that Shenzhen has formed a whole industry chain layout of upstream raw material supply, mid-stream product design and manufacturing, and downstream global market sales.

Zhan Xingyu, general manager of Shenzhen Hanyang Yangtian Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters that although labor costs in some countries and regions are relatively low, the production efficiency of workers is also low. At the same time, Shenzhen has a complete e-cigarette supply chain, which is difficult to build abroad, and if there is no supply chain, relying on domestic transportation, the entire production cost will rise. From the perspective of R & D, if the R & D center is still in China, it is very difficult for each product to launch in close cooperation with the local production team, which will affect the smooth mass production of products, while putting R & D overseas is even more difficult to achieve. because at present, China's human resources reserve and core technology are very difficult to replace.

E-cigarettes will inevitably encounter difficulties and bottlenecks in the process of going to sea. According to Youville CMO Bo Feng, "the e-cigarette industry has been facing logistics bottlenecks before. Under the efficient coordination of the Baoan District Government and the E-cigarette Special Committee, Shenzhen Airport and relevant testing units have studied and issued the" Electronic atomization products list Enterprise Identification Standard "and" Air Export differentiated Security Inspection Operation guidelines ". It has not only helped us solve the problem of logistics, but also helped enterprises to go out to sea. "

Under the circumstances that the overall data of going out to sea in recent years are eye-catching, what are the expectations of the interviewed e-cigarette companies for the future?

According to Youville CMO Bo Feng, market researchers predict that the global e-cigarette market will grow at an annual rate of 17%, with a maximum conversion rate of about $55 billion by 2024.

Hu Xin, president of Yunshuo Technology, believes that global brands in the field of e-cigarettes may emerge in China in the future. In his view, brands must have pricing power and brand premium, and consumers are willing to pay for brand awareness, image and tonality. At present, there are few e-cigarette brands in the real sense, but China has a great advantage in the manufacture and export of e-cigarettes, and there is a great opportunity to give birth to global brands in the future.

Jiang Hui, senior vice president of Love Miracle, said that e-cigarette going out to sea is a test for the standardized development and continuous progress of the industry. at present, countries are becoming more and more standardized in e-cigarette-related laws and regulations, and enterprises also need to adapt to regulatory changes. take compliance development as the basic yardstick, but also pay more attention to research and development and corporate social responsibility investment For example, the continuous improvement of product quality, the technical exploration of juvenile protection and environmental recycling, etc., will also promote the industry as a whole to usher in more compliant and sustainable development.