S. Korea Tops Global Lithium-Ion Battery Market

South Korea grabbed the top spot of the global lithium-ion battery market, beating out Japan for the first time.

According to Japanese market researcher Techno System Research on Friday, Korea accounted for 42.6% of the global lithium-ion battery market in the second quarter (from April through June), taking up more shares than Japan (33.7%). Korea's market share expanded by 4.9% points compared to the previous quarter, while Japan's dipped by 4.3% points.

Samsung SDI and LG Chem are major lithium-ion battery makers in Korea, and Panasonic, Sanyo Electric and Sony are their Japanese counterparts.

Among the Korean battery makers, Samsung SDI increased its market share by 4.3% points to take up 25.3%, taking the top position of the global lithium-ion battery market. LG Chem came in third with a 17.3% market share, up 0.7% points from the previous quarter. On the other hand, Sanyo Electric's share slid by 1.4% points to 18.4%, being placed on second, while Sony's dropped to 7.9% on fourth place. Panasonic came in fifth with a 4.6% market share.

The Korean battery makers showed strong performances this year owing to growing sales of smartphone batteries. In contrast, Japanese manufacturers suffered production disruption triggered by the massive earthquake in the eastern part of the country in March. Sony was hard hit as two of its battery plants underwent disruption.

IIT, a Japanese IT market researcher, forecast Korea will outstrip Japan by annual sales for the first time in a recent report. Samsung SDI has set its target sales at one billion units of lithium-ion batteries this year, outnumbering 830 million, the target sales volume of Sanyo Electric, the largest rival of Samsung. LG Chem is forecast to be hot on the trail of Sanyo with a goal of producing 750 million units this year.

[Written by Jae-man Koh - Su-hyun Song / edited by Soyoung Chung]

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