The phrase "tobacco industry" generally refers to the companies involved in the manufacture of cigarettes, cigars, snuff, chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco. China National Tobacco Co. has become the largest tobacco company in the world by volume. Following extensive merger and acquisition activity in the 1990s and 2000s as well as the spinoff of Altria's international tobacco holdings as Philip Morris International in 2008, five firms dominate international markets - in alphabetical order:
