As new energy power products are gaining popularity, lithium-ion battery industry has made rapid development, and has gradually formed a completed industry chain system of high degree of specialization and clear division. The global lithium-ion battery market is gaining more momentum than lead-acid battery industry nowadays. Big Data analysis shows that in 2015 the global lithium battery cell output reached up to 1570 million yuan (or 245.3 million USD), with an increase of 29% compared that of 2014. Experts predict that by 2018 the global lithium battery cell output will exceed 2500 million yuan (or 390.6 million USD).
Over the past two years, the lithium power battery has become the main driving force for rapid growth of world's lithium battery market. In terms of the present market regional composition, China has become the world's essential and most active area of lithium battery development. Lithium Big Data show that since 2010, in view of the total output of lithium batteries, the average annual growth rate of lithium batteries is above 25%,with large proportion of lithium power battery. For example: the global total sales of lithium batteries in 2015 are about 95.29GWH, increase by 33.5% over last year, of which used for electric vehicles, tricycles, electric bicycles, wheelbarrows, electric scooters and other transport vehicles reached up to 30.02GWH, accounting for about 30% of lithium battery total output. Among them, the application of power lithium battery for cars occupies the most proportion. In 2016, the production of new energy vehicles is 51.8 million, increased by 36.7% compared to that of 2015. while China's automotive power battery output is 30.8GWh, an increase of 82% over last year. The reason why the growth rate of power batteries is beyond the growth rate of new energy vehicles are as follows: 1) the annual production of vehicles in 2016 need power battery; 2) production of the vehicles from 2014 to 2015 need to be changed for power battery; 3) production of some models from 2009 to 2013 need to replace with new battery.
Another major reason of power lithium battery demand growth is that some countries (China, the United States, Canada, etc.) provide subsidy for lithium battery enterprises. And the Government is also encouraging new energy vehicles to use power lithium batteries. Therefore, Nowadays, some small and medium enterprises prefer power lithium batteries.
Analysis on the Competitive Pattern of Global Lithium Battery Market
Thanks to the rapid development of new energy vehicles, it gives strong driving force to the demand for power lithium batteries. And among the industry of power lithium batteries, more and more Chinese lithium battery companies emerges to be the forefront of the global lithium battery suppliers. In terms of some companies’ Lithium battery market scale, in 2015, lithium battery market scale of the Top 10 almost accounted for 66.4% of the global lithium battery market. Samsung, Panasonic, LG still occupy the top three, while Panasonic ,benefited from Tesla, become the world's largest lithium battery giant, and LG shares higher in the field of power battery market. Among the TOP10, there are five Chinese lithium battery companies named ATL, BYD, CATL, Li Shen, Guo Xuan, but single China's lithium battery company scale is smaller than that of other countries.
The pattern changes since 2016:
Chinese manufacturers accounted for 60% of global sales, Japan accounted for 17% in the world, South Korea accounted for about 23%. More importantly, the growth rate of Chinese manufacturers are faster than Japan and South Korea,which means China's share in the world continues to grow.