Japanese battery firm Panasonic is to halt production of lithium-ion batteries at one of its Chinese plants amid stiff competition from South Korean firms, according to the Nikkei Asian Review.
The company’s Beijing site is set to close next month as the firm focuses on automobiles (it is investing around 60 billion yen ($499.83 million) in the fiscal year through March in the market and will produce batteries for Tesla) and industrial equipment batteries, according to the news website.
Founded in 2000, at its peak the Panasonic factory produced four million units for mobile handsets and digital cameras exclusively for Nokia each month.
Panasonic plans to liquidate the production unit this fiscal year, laying off 1,300 employees.
However, earlier this year BBB reported how hundreds of Panasonic Corp staff were heading to Nevada, US, to the prepare Tesla’s lithium-ion gigafactory for production.
Panasonic also runs lithium-ion battery plants in Wuxi and Suzhou in Jiangsu province, China.
