Shenzhen manufacturers get the taste for e-cigarettesShenzhen firms get taste for e-cigarettes

ZYS Technology began corporate life two years ago as a maker of digital navigational instruments and video handsets. Then the Shenzhen-based company got fired up about a new line of business: electronic cigarettes.

'We switched to e-cigarettes at the beginning of 2009' to boost the company's profit, said Yuki Wen, ZYS' sales manager.

She said the company sold about 150,000 cigarettes every month, with half exported mostly to Japan, the United States and several European countries. The rest are sold on the mainland, mostly online and through television-shopping shows where customers call a hotline to get the goods delivered.

The closely held company now is betting its future on the appeal of simulated smoking and has decided to sell its video handset business as well as its business making instruments for global positioning systems.

Shenzhen has rapidly become the world's biggest centre for making e-cigarettes, a market that researcher Euromonitor estimates is worth US$100 million in annual global sales. According to the National Vapers Club, an advocacy group for e-cigarette users, at least one million people in the US use the product.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that resemble a cigarette. When inhaled, the devices turn nicotine-laced liquid into a fine vapour mist that looks like smoke. They can be flavoured to mimic the taste of well-known brands. 'Any brand, you just name it,' Wen said. 'We can even produce apple or cherry flavoured e-cigarettes.'

The e-cigarettes also are tailored for various markets by the content of nicotine, the chemical found in tobacco that is addictive. Makers say ZYS' exports to Japan and Italy are all nicotine-free, while US customers prefer heavy flavour produced by a higher nicotine content.