There is a saying in the industry: "more than 95% of the global e-cigarette production and products come from China, 70% of China come from Shenzhen, and more than 95% of Shenzhen come from Bao'an". This shows the position of Bao'an District of Shenzhen in the global e-cigarette industry.

On June 15, the "2022 sixth standardized development publicity and Implementation Conference of e-cigarette industry and the first export service development conference" was held in Bao'an, Shenzhen. At the meeting, the "2022 e-cigarette industry export blue book" jointly produced by the e-cigarette Professional Committee of China Electronic Chamber of Commerce was also officially released.

"China's e-cigarette industry is in a critical period of opportunity. With the gradual standardization of the market environment, the gradual clarification of industry standards and the continuous innovation of underlying technologies, it will continue to maintain its good development momentum in the export field and may usher in a new round of growth." Yaojide, chairman of the electronic cigarette Professional Committee of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce, said in his speech.

At the same time, lingxiaolu, executive Commissioner of Bao'an District government, also said in his speech that some profound changes in the current e-cigarette industry are affecting the development of the e-cigarette industry. The Bao'an District government will continue to support the development of the e-cigarette industry. The atomization technology industry will also be an important matrix for the "steady growth" of Bao'an's 14th five year plan and an important force for Bao'an to build a world-class advanced manufacturing city.

Export orientation

China's e-cigarette industry continues to maintain this good development momentum in the export field.

The content of the above blue book shows that China's e-cigarette industry is one of the representative industries that bucked the trend during the epidemic. In particular, in 2021, the export scale of e-cigarettes reached 138.3 billion yuan, an increase of 180% year-on-year over 2020, and the growth rate far exceeded the total national exports of goods in the same period. Meanwhile, on the basis of 138.3 billion yuan in 2021, it is expected that the total export volume of e-cigarettes in 2022 is expected to reach 186.7 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 35%.

According to the data provided by the blue book, thanks to the relatively high acceptance of e-cigarettes by overseas generation Z, the scale of the global e-cigarette market has increased rapidly: in the first quarter of 2022, the scale of the global e-cigarette market was $25billion, and it is expected that the scale of the overseas e-cigarette Market will maintain a growth rate of 35% in 2022, with a total scale of more than $108billion.

Yao Jide believed that with the rapid growth of export business, China's e-cigarette industry "showed vigorous vitality and vitality".

According to Xiang songzuo, President of the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Financial Research Institute, the current Chinese economy is looking for new growth points, and e-cigarette, as a very new industry, is undoubtedly a new growth point. He believes that the global market size of the e-cigarette industry exceeded US $80billion in 2021, an increase of 120% over 2020, and it is expected to continue to maintain a rapid growth of more than 30-35% in the future. At the same time, the domestic market reached 19.7 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 36% over 2020. "The e-cigarette industry has about 1.5 million direct jobs and more than 4million indirect jobs. Therefore, we should vigorously support and support new export industries and occupy the international market".

The content of the blue book shows that at present, there are more than 1500 domestic e-cigarette manufacturing and brand enterprises, of which more than 70% are mainly exported overseas. Moreover, with the continuous expansion of overseas markets, this proportion is expected to continue to increase.

So, what is the reason that makes China's e-cigarette industry form an export-oriented industrial development pattern?

"There are two main reasons, one is that the sales price of e-cigarettes abroad is lower than that of cigarettes, and the other is that foreign countries hold a more inclusive attitude towards e-cigarettes." Zhao Tong, co-founder of Shenzhen two supremacy Technology Co., Ltd., told the economic observer that the company's main business is to serve the compliance and global development of electronic atomization enterprises.

"We know that the price of cigarettes in China varies from high to low. You can smoke for a few yuan, but the price of cigarettes in foreign countries is generally high, while the price of e-cigarettes is generally 'people-friendly', so a strong substitution effect has been formed in foreign countries from the beginning, resulting in a high penetration rate, while the penetration rate in China is low". Zhao Tong believes that under the background of high recognition of e-cigarettes in foreign markets and the penetration rate of some countries reaching 30% (such as the United States), it is logical for domestic e-cigarette enterprises to give priority to developing foreign markets.

"Fog city" blueprint

According to the data provided by lingxiaolu, executive Commissioner of Shenzhen Bao'an District government, the e-cigarette industry in Bao'an has gone through a 20-year process, and is changing from small to large, from weak to strong. In 2021, there were 55 e-cigarette Enterprises above Designated Size in Bao'an District, with an output value of 35.6 billion yuan. This year, the number of enterprises has increased to 77, and the output value is expected to further improve, "firmly occupy half of China's e-cigarette industry".

Ling Xiaolu said that at present, Bao'an District has mcwell, the world's largest e-cigarette manufacturer, fogcore technology, the largest e-cigarette brand, and a large number of other well-known e-cigarette enterprises. In addition, the battery, hardware, packaging materials, testing and other major enterprises related to e-cigarettes also take Bao'an as the core, and are distributed in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhongshan and other Pearl River Delta regions, making Bao'an District not only have a complete e-cigarette industry chain, but also become one of the few industries in China that master the core technology of the industry, and can have the whole industry chain and voice in the world.

Ling Xiaolu believed in his speech that the e-cigarette industry should continue to expand its application boundaries, such as in the fields of atomized medicine, atomized health, atomized beauty, etc, "Atomization is an important basic platform technology in the field of big health, especially in the medical field. Many enterprises have increased the R & D investment of atomization platform to promote the in-depth application of atomization products in health care, medical treatment, health and other fields. It is hoped that all enterprises will increase R & D investment, expand the application boundary, and rebuild a big health industry cluster in Bao'an".

Lu Jixian, deputy director of the investment promotion agency of Bao'an District, also said, "Bao'an District attaches great importance to the development of e-cigarette enterprises and plans to build a 100 billion level e-cigarette industry cluster in the next two to three years.". He believes that Bao'an District vigorously develops the e-cigarette industry because it has four advantages: location advantage, transportation advantage, industrial advantage and service advantage.

In Lu Jixian's view, the superior geographical location makes Bao'an District the heart of the "one hour traffic circle" of Dawan District, because Bao'an has a modern three-dimensional transportation network hub integrating aviation, shipping, expressway, high-speed rail, intercity rail transit and subway. Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport is also the first modern international airport in China to realize sea, land and air transportation.

In the future, Bao'an will also usher in the Shenzhen China channel The construction of Shenzhen Zhuhai channel has formed three major cross sea channels with Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Bridge. In this way, Bao'an will become a gateway for Shenzhen to connect the West Bank of the Pearl River - the manufacturing industry in western Guangdong.

As an export-oriented FMCG, e-cigarettes are often restricted by transportation. Public information shows that Shenzhen global e-cigarette industry center carries 90% of the global e-cigarette supply, and 40% of the exported products are provided by Hong Kong airport for air transportation. However, since May 1 this year, Hong Kong will no longer allow e-cigarettes to be transshipped through Hong Kong. Will the shortage of transportation capacity become a stumbling block for the development of the "fog city"?

In response to the question, Wang suichu, deputy general manager of Shenzhen Airport Group, said in his speech that with the strong support of the competent civil aviation department and Bao'an District government, this year, Shenzhen airport, together with the e-cigarette Professional Committee of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce and other relevant parties, aimed at the bottleneck of the domestic e-cigarette air transport chain in the early stage, and on the basis of finding out the air transport hazard characteristics and transport standards involved in electronic atomization products, Jointly studied and issued the white list enterprise identification standards for electronic atomization products and the differentiated security inspection operation guidelines for air export, which closely follow the requirements of the current safety regulations.

"The white list standard is another useful attempt to promote security innovation in the industry. It is a specific action of Shenzhen airport to implement the guidance of civil aviation to promote the high-quality development of dangerous goods air transportation. It will not only further enhance the competitiveness of China's international aviation logistics services, but also have an important significance in promoting the transportation norms of the global e-cigarette industry." Wang suichu said that in the future, it will better match the routes and transportation capacity Meet the export needs of enterprises, help local enterprises better participate in international competition, and make more "made in China" and "made in Shenzhen" accessible to the world.

"Recently, the main leaders of our district specially went to the airport to build Shenzhen airport into our global e-cigarette transfer center in the next step", Lu Jixian stressed that the advantages of transportation will provide great opportunities for the development of the whole e-cigarette industry in Bao'an.

Fight the world

Why can domestic e-cigarette enterprises achieve such advantageous results in the global market?

In this regard, Zhao Tong told the economic observer that in the initial stage of the e-cigarette industry, it is a labor-intensive industry, which has natural advantages for domestic enterprises, especially those in Bao'an, Shenzhen, and quickly forms a certain scale of industrial clusters.

"Coupled with the location and transportation advantages of Bao'an, such industrial clusters are obviously irreplaceable in Vietnam and other places. For example, as long as you have the creativity or demand for e-cigarette production, you can find the industrial chain in one day and produce products in three days if you can't meet the needs of Bao'an; looking at the world, there are few regions that can match this advantage, let alone Vietnam".

He believes that with the iterative innovation of technology, e-cigarettes gradually move towards high technology, and during this period, relevant domestic enterprises have also done well, thus forming a certain technical barrier or moat, "Of course, the existing advantages do not represent the future. With the rapid growth of the overseas market, it will put forward higher requirements for enterprises. The key is how to consolidate the technological advantages and master the discourse power in the international market. Therefore, in the foreseeable new wave of e-cigarettes going to the sea, enterprises need to pay attention to two points: one is to speed up research and innovation to achieve brand transformation and upgrading; the other is to attach importance to patent protection rights. In addition, the relevant policies and policies of export places The demand characteristics of local consumers also need to be grasped ".

The content of the blue book shows that patent applications for e-cigarettes have emerged in the past three years. In the past three years, the number of patent applications has been more than 5000 every year; Since the fourth quarter of 2021, the number of patent applications has increased every month, and the total number of patent applications is expected to exceed 7000 in 2022.

Obviously, at present, intellectual property rights are receiving more and more attention from e-cigarette enterprises. So how can enterprises protect intellectual property rights and safeguard their interests in operation? While opening up overseas markets, how should we deal with the risks related to intellectual property?

In this regard, Tang Shunliang, a lawyer from Beijing zhonglunwende Kunming law firm, believes that there is a strong relationship between intellectual property and Global trade. "If there is no global trade, there will be no unified rules of global intellectual property. In this sense, the intellectual property competition of new types of tobacco such as global e-cigarettes will become normal, and with the increase of exports, the number of intellectual property disputes they encounter will also increase significantly.".

As a professional lawyer in the field of new-type tobacco, Tang Shunliang suggested in relevant speeches that enterprises should pay more attention to the changes of intellectual property legal rules and the dynamics of relevant patent litigation under the background of Global trade, so as to clearly judge whether their products may involve infringement in real time. He stressed that there are five aspects of patent rights that need the close attention of e-cigarette Enterprises: the first is the material patent related to thin slices, the second is the patent related to heating non combustible Rouge related to thin slices, the third is the structure patent that herbal enterprises should pay attention to, the fourth is the suction sensor patent of atomized e-cigarette, and the fifth is the synthetic nicotine patent.

In addition, the heads of several Shenzhen e-cigarette enterprises also shared their experience of going to sea. Yaohaoyu, deputy general manager of Hengxin Yongji Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Hengxin Technology), believes that enterprises need to pay attention to the consumer needs of destinations when going to sea. "Consumers in different countries have different consumer groups and preferences. Taking Britain and the United States as an example, although the increase is different year by year, from the perspective of the general trend, adult e-cigarette consumers in Britain and the United States gradually prefer fruits, desserts, etc.".

Liu Zhibin, general manager of green Yunda Technology Co., Ltd., who has many years of experience in going to sea, drew two conclusions based on the development process and going to sea story of green Yunda in the past 11 years: one is based on research and development, and the other is export-oriented.

For e-cigarette enterprises going to sea, Ling Xiaolu said in his speech that he hoped that the e-cigarette industry would continue to expand the overseas market, occupy more overseas market shares, occupy the upstream position of the global industrial chain, take the lead in formulating standards for the global electronic atomization industry, and also hoped that enterprises in Bao'an District would strengthen cooperation with industry associations and technical institutions, jointly develop and jointly build a global atomization technology center through joint research and development, The world e-cigarette industry center integrating production and manufacturing, R & D and testing, industrial design, intellectual property rights, scientific research laboratories and exhibition logistics in Bao'an will continue to maintain Bao'an's advantages in the emerging tobacco industry chain.