South Korea’s electric vehicle battery makers are enjoying strong growth despite sluggish global market due to slowing demand in the United States and China, data showed Wednesday.

According to data released by market research firm SNE Research, overall usage of electric vehicle batteries manufactured by Korea’s three majors LG Chem Ltd., Samsung SDI Co., and SK Innovation Co. increased in August from a year ago, despite a 10 percent fall in global application.

Application of LG Chem batteries in the global electric vehicle market increased 79.9 percent in August from the same month last year, accounting for 12.6 percent of the market and Samsung SDI 10 percent to take up 4.4 percent of the global share. SK Innovation also made its name as one of the top 10 electric vehicle manufacturer by market share earlier this year, with its application up 8.1 percent to account for 1.8 percent of the global market in August.

Data showed that LG Chem accounted for the third-largest market share in the global battery industry, Samsung SDI sixth, and SK Innovation ninth in ranking. Their combined market share reached 18.8 percent in August, up 7.4 percentage points from 11.4 percent a year ago, although the increase remains yet small when compared to their Chinese rivals.

China’s CATL, world’s largest automotive battery maker, widened its gap with Korea’s three major battery manufacturers with its global market share by application reaching 33.5 percent in August. Data, however, showed that other Chinese and Japanese battery manufacturers struggled due to economic slowdown in world’s largest and second-largest market China and the U.S.

In particular, electric vehicle battery application of China’s BYD fell 61.1 percent in August, AESC 0.6 percent, and QuoXuan 2.3 percent during the same period. Japan’s Panasonic also saw application fall 22.5 percent in August from a year ago amid a fall in demand from U.S. Tesla, data showed.

By Pulse (translation)

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