烟草在线据Nacsonline.com报道编译　　《道琼斯新闻专线》报道，最近，奥驰亚集团降低了一些烟草产品的价格，从而增加了自己总的卷烟市场份额。雷诺美国公司和罗瑞拉德烟草公司也降低了卷烟价格，以收回市场份额。

　　由于最近卷烟促销宣传活动的涌现，罗瑞拉德烟草公司和雷诺美国公司双双把矛头指向一家竞争公司（奥驰亚，不过没有具体点名）。目前，奥驰亚拥有大约一半美国烟草市场。

　　分析师们想知道，这种竞争性的定价趋势是否会损害未来的收益增长。罗瑞拉德烟草公司和雷诺美国公司第三季度的收益仅取得了小幅增长，而奥驰亚报告期利润增长了3%。晨星公司的分析师托马斯·穆拉吉预测，这种敌意的定价会在未来两个到四个季度里开始，但从长期来看，它是会慢慢减少的。

　　雷诺美国公司将保持骆驼和波迈卷烟的价格稳定，但会促销具体的卷烟品牌和卷烟风格，并会给某些地区提供不同的价格点。与此同时，罗瑞拉德烟草公司说，它不会将名优新港卷烟和它的竞争产品之间的价格差缩小太多。

　　罗瑞拉德烟草公司的首席执行官兼董事会主席默里·凯斯勒说：“商业成本被提高了，但不是被我们提高，而是被竞争对手提高的。我们不会把价格降得比它们还低，试图使价格战更激化。”

US: Aggressive Tobacco Pricing to Come

　　Altria Group recently lowered the price on some of its tobacco products, growing its total cigarette market share. Reynolds American and Lorillard will also drop cigarette cost in an effort to gain back market share, Dow Jones Newswire reports.

　　Lorillard and Reynolds American both pointed to a competitor (Altria, although not specifically named) for the recent influx of cigarette promotions. Currently, Altria has around half of the U.S. tobacco market.

　　Analysts wonder if this competitive pricing trend will hurt earnings growth in the near future. Both Lorillard and Reynolds American only registered small bumps in third-quarter earnings, while Altria reported a 3% profit jump. Thomas Mullarkey, an analyst with Morningstar, predicted aggressive pricing will commence for the next two to four quarters, but that it will taper off in the long term.

　　Reynolds American will keep pricing stable on Camel and Pall Mall, while promoting specific brands and styles, and offering certain geographical areas different price points. Meanwhile, Lorillard said it would not be closing the gap too much between premium Newport and its competition.

　　"The cost of business has been raised, not by us, by our competitor," said Murray Kessler, CEO/chairman of Lorillard. "We're not trying to get more aggressive by reducing prices below them." Enditem