Asia’s lithium-ion cell manufacturers dominated the electric vehicle battery market with Korea, Japan and China claiming a 94% share of the market by shipments.
LG Chem, CATL and Panasonic were the main players in the market during the first half of the year, according to Korean consultancy firm SNE Research.
The three firms had a combined 68% share of the market, claimed the report.
The coronavirus has played its part, with SNE’s pre-pandemic figures suggesting CATL had a manufacturing supply of 32.5GWh (30% market share);however, LG Chem leapfrogged CATL as Asia’s biggest producer of EV batteries to claim a 24.6% market share— the latter falling to a 23.5% market share.
The report on 17 August also suggested South Korean battery makers had increased their market share from 9.5% four years ago to 34.5% this year.
China’s market share had grown to 42.7% as of last year, but declined to 32.9% during H2 of this year.
Japan, according to the report, has also seen a steady decline in market share, falling from 37% in 2016 to 28.9% in 2018 and 26.4% in 2020.
The report claimed the chief buyers of South Korean batteries were Germany, which imported the most South Korean batteries with $481 million of purchases. It was followed by China ($299 million), Poland ($243 million), the US ($216 million), Vietnam ($165 million), Hong Kong ($139 million), and Japan ($119 million).
