S. Korean battery makers' H1 market share falls amid Chinese advance

SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Yonhap) -- The global market share of major South Korean battery makers fell in the first half of this year from a year earlier amid strong growth of Chinese rivals, a report showed Tuesday.

LG Energy Solution Ltd., SK On Co. and Samsung SDI Co. together accounted for a combined 25.8 percent share for the January-June period, in terms of the total amount of battery energy registered, according to the report by market tracker SNE Research.

That marks a 9.1 percentage point decline from the previous year's 34.9 percent.

LG Energy Solution kept its second place, although its market share fell to 14.4 percent from 23.8 percent in the same period. Samsung SDI came in sixth with a 4.9 percent share.

SK On, which was split off from SK Innovation Co. last year, saw its share rise 1.2 percentage points to 6.5 percent, ranking fifth.

China's CATL retained the No. 1 spot with its share jumping 6.2 percentage points to 34.8 percent. BYD, the third-largest player, saw its share rise 5 percentage points to 11.8 percent.

Chinese battery makers have been leading the market on the back of strong domestic supply demand and Beijing's policy support.

"Many Chinese companies led the growth in the battery market, led by CATL and BYD. All Chinese companies in the top 10 showed high growth rates in the triple digits," SNE Research said.

elly@yna.co.kr
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