New Trends of the Big Three in Korean Battery

With the rapid rise of my country's power lithium battery companies, the three major battery companies in South Korea are losing ground. Industry analysis indicates that as my country's new energy vehicle market continues to rise and Chinese companies gradually enter the European market, global battery competition will further intensify in the future. Data shows that from January to April this year, the total installed market share of the three major battery manufacturers in South Korea (LG New Energy, SKI, Samsung SDI) fell 3.1 percentage points year-on-year to 32%, which is already lower than the 32.5% of CATL. From the perspective of growth rate, Chinese companies dominated the upward momentum of the entire market. Among them, AVIC lithium battery increased by as much as 633% year-on-year, and Guoxuan High-tech increased 433% year-on-year. Under the pressure of the overall market share of Korean battery companies, both in terms of capital, output layout or technological development, they will face greater challenges. The following are the latest developments of the three Korean battery giants: LG New Energy officially launched its IPO On June 8, foreign media reported that LG New Energy officially launched the listing process. The listing is planned to raise about 10 trillion won (approximately RMB 57.4 billion), and it plans to complete the listing within this year. Its market value is estimated to be as high as 100 trillion won. LG New Energy had revenue of 13 trillion won last year and plans to generate more than 30 trillion won in revenue by 2024. The company plans to use IPO proceeds to expand facility investment to meet the rising demand for electric vehicle batteries. In terms of output, LG New Energy said it plans to more than double its electric vehicle battery output to 260GWh by 2023. At the end of May, foreign media said that LG New Energy and Hyundai Motor expected to invest 1.2 billion U.S. dollars to build a battery plant in Indonesia. The annual output will reach 10GWh, which can be used by approximately 125,000 electric vehicles with a battery capacity of 80KWh. SKI develops cylindrical/prismatic batteries According to Korean media reports, SKI stated that it is considering the production of new electric vehicle batteries, including cylindrical batteries and square batteries, in order to expand its customer base. Recently at the Korea Battery Expo InterBattery, Jee, head of the SKI battery department, confirmed that the company is preparing to diversify its product portfolio, which currently only includes soft pack batteries. 'We are reviewing the development of round and square batteries.' Jee said. Currently, international OEMs including Volkswagen, BMW, and Tesla are increasing the introduction of square and cylindrical batteries. In March this year, Volkswagen announced on the 'Battery Day' that the standard battery cell selection is a square shell, indicating that Volkswagen intends to shift its focus to the Ningde era and Northvolt, which is deeply plowing the square shell. With this in mind, SKI's enrichment of its product matrix is u200bu200bmost likely in order to broaden its customer base and seize new markets. Samsung SDI promotes a joint venture battery factory in the US Foreign media reported that Samsung SDI is seeking to enter the US battery market by establishing a joint venture battery factory with a global car manufacturer. An executive of Samsung SDI revealed that it is already preparing to enter the United States. “The expansion of the United States is under review. The preparations are gradually progressing.” At present, Samsung SDI is the only one of the three major battery manufacturers in South Korea that does not have a battery production base in the United States Prior to this, LG New Energy and SKI established joint ventures with GM and Ford respectively. Samsung SDI plans to develop a detailed investment plan by the end of 2021 at the latest. Industry insiders pointed out that Samsung SDI may have a joint venture with the Stellattis Group and BMW that use Samsung SDI batteries. Stellantis is the world's fourth-largest automaker, and it owns Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot and Maserati.