Regardless of any controversy over their health risks, e-cigarettes were without a doubt a hot product in 2014. Shipments of the tobacco substitute first spiked at the beginning of 2013, but we saw an additional and significant rise in the second and third quarters of last year. In Q4, however, we saw a significant drop in the number of shipments of the good coming into the United States.

Shipments of e-cigarettes entering US ports – by quarter

In the first two months of 2015, we tracked 29 shipments of e-cigarettes, identical to the number in the same period of time last year. Assuming things stay on this track through March, we could expect that shipments fall even further from last quarter, back to Q1 2014 levels.

We don’t, however, observe this same pattern in shipments of the e-cigarettes’ combustible counterpart, traditional cigarettes:

US Imports of Tobacco – Dollar Value by Quarter

A number of cities have recently passed, or are in the process of passing, a ban on the use of e-cigarettes in public spaces. Other jurisdictions are making it harder for younger people to obtain them. These legal measures might be having an effect on demand, or we might just be witnessing the downside of a fad.