KT & G to build new tobacco plant in Kazakhstan

KT&G, South Korea's largest tobacco company, said Thursday that the company has started construction of its fourth overseas manufacturing plant in Kazakhstan.

The new plant will be built on a 200,000-square-meter site and is scheduled to be completed by 2025. The company did not disclose how much it would invest in the construction of the Kazakhstan plant.

“We expect the new Kazakhstan factory to serve as a core global production hub that encompasses the Eurasian market," said KT&G CEO Baek Bok-in on Wednesday, the same day as its groundbreaking ceremony in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Upon completion, the new plant will produce both heat-not-burn and regular combustible tobacco products to supply the Eurasian region.

“Kazakhstan is the company’s strategic region for its overseas business expansion,” an official from KT&G said. “As part of its global expansion plan, KT&G also established a sales office in Kazakhstan earlier in January this year,” the official added.

KT&G currently aims to generate half of its sales from overseas businesses by 2027, with a goal of recording 10 trillion won ($7.4 billion) in sales.

As part of its global expansion, KT&G said last month that the company will also build its second manufacturing plant in Indonesia by 2026, to increase its tobacco product supply in neighboring countries in Southeast Asia.

KT&G currently has a total of six tobacco manufacturing plants, three in South Korea and three in overseas countries, one each in Russia, Turkey and Indonesia. Their combined manufacturing capacity reaches 13.6 billion cigarettes a year.