The Three Kingdoms of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese batteries… Speed ​​battle Korea, volume war China, shaking Japan

Recently, electric vehicles and batteries are among the hottest industries in the world. The competition is so fierce. The countries currently leading the battery industry are Korea, China, and Japan. This is why the battery competition is compared to the Three Kingdoms. Change is fast. Japan, which was ahead of small home appliances, also took the lead in electric vehicle batteries, but was recently overtaken by Korea and China. However, the battery industry of Japanese companies cannot be ignored. China is trying to preoccupy the global market based on a strong domestic market. Korea is in the midst of targeting the European and American markets. We looked at the present and future of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, China and Japan.

The topic of Korean battery companies is speed warfare and Europe and the United States. In particular, new and expansion of local factories are in full swing in line with the increasing demand for batteries in the US and Europe. LG Energy Solutions, which is the most advanced in production among domestic companies, has a battery production capacity of 120 GWh (gigawatt hours) at factories in Michigan, USA and Wroclaw, Poland. In addition, they are expanding their factories in Europe and the United States respectively. LG Energy Solutions plans to more than double its battery production to 260GWh by 2023. Separately, in the United States, it has established a joint venture with General Motors (GM) to build a 30GWh battery production plant in Ohio.

Samsung SDI is also expanding its electric vehicle battery production line at its plant in Goed, Hungary, which is based in Europe. Samsung SDI has not disclosed a specific expansion plan, but the market predicts that battery production will more than double when the expansion is complete. Samsung SDI also opened up the possibility of a new factory in the US. At a performance presentation held at the end of last month, Samsung SDI Executive Vice President Son Michael said, “As the proportion of European projects is high, we will respond mainly to the Hungarian plant for the time being,” and “We will closely examine new overseas production bases in the mid to long term.” Market interpretation is that the US is likely to be the new production base that Samsung SDI reviews.

SK Innovation is busy expanding or building battery factories simultaneously in Europe and the United States. The Battery Plant 1 and 2, which are being built in Georgia, will sequentially mass-produce electric vehicle batteries from 2022. Separately, SK Innovation recently decided to establish a new battery factory in Hungary. Hungary’s third plant, which will invest 1.2 trillion won, aims to mass-produce products in 2024 with a scale of 30 GWh. SK Innovation President Kim Joon said, “It is an investment to lead the battery industry in the long term.”

China is expected to maintain its position in the world’s largest electric vehicle battery market for the next five years. Based on stable domestic demand, Chinese companies are expanding investment. China’s No. 1 CATL announced in December of last year that it will invest 39 billion yuan (6.75 trillion won) to expand battery production. Separately, it also announced that it will invest 29 billion yuan (5 trillion won) additionally in the expansion of the battery plant earlier this month. It is an ambitious plan to build three new battery factories in China alone.

After a successful large-scale investment, by 2030, CATL’s electric vehicle battery production will increase to 600 GWh per year. Some predict that CATL’s battery share will increase exponentially starting this year. Jin Hyun-woo, a researcher at Mirae Asset Daewoo, predicted that “the electric vehicle models of automakers equipped with CATL batteries will increase rapidly,” and “From this year, CATL’s share of electric vehicle batteries will also jump.”

The Chinese battery industry, however, has a stumbling block of trade disputes between the US and China. CATL is currently actively entering the European market, but has not surpassed the US market. The German battery plant, which is CATL’s first overseas production base, begins mass production from the end of this year, but the high wall of the US market is still not overcome. CATL has publicly announced plans to enter the U.S. market from 2019, but has failed to achieve such results. An official in the domestic battery industry said, “Korean and Japanese companies are relatively benefiting from the flag battle between the US and China.”

Japan, which has been ahead in small home appliances such as the Walkman, is evaluated as being the most advanced in battery technology among Korea, China, and Japan. Panasonic led the electric vehicle battery market by supplying batteries exclusively to Tesla based on its advanced technology. However, as the monopoly structure of Japanese companies has been broken recently, the battery market share is falling. In the midst of this, concerns about the domestic battery industry are growing even within Japan. The Nippon Geizai Shimbun recently said, “With the rapid rise of Chinese companies in the lithium ion battery material market, a change in the battery material supply chain is taking place.” “As Chinese products with excellent price competitiveness lead the market, the market environment led by Japanese companies is changing.” Diagnosed.

It is an analysis that Korean and Chinese companies independently developed core materials for batteries that were monopolized by Japanese companies, such as cathode materials, cathode materials, and separators, affecting the Japanese battery industry. In fact, the domestic battery rear industry such as separator (SKC), cathode material and cathode material (POSCO Chemical) is growing rapidly. On the other hand, Japanese battery materials companies are cautious about investment. Toray is representative. Toray plans to expand production at the Hungarian separator plant by 2022, but has no plans to increase production thereafter. Nihon Geizai Shimbun pointed out that “Panasonic and others are struggling in price competition with Korean and Chinese companies because they depend on Japanese-based companies.” Japanese companies are concerned that Japan’s battery market share will inevitably fall if Korea and China take the lead in the battery industry.

Reporter Kiheon Kang [email protected]