Joining the Ranks of Top 10 Producers
Market research firm SNE Research announced on May 7 that SK Innovation ranked ninth in the world in the first quarter of this year in terms of electric vehicle (EV) battery supply to end consumers.
The EV battery supply by SK Innovation totaled 447 MWh during the period, up 301.2 percent from a year ago. Its global market share rose from 1 percent to 1.9 percent and its global ranking rose from 14th to ninth.
SK Innovation's growth in the global EV battery market is expected to accelerate. Its supply added up to 230.1 MWh in March this year with a year-on-year growth of 366 percent. That month, it came in seventh in the world, nipping at the heels of Samsung SDI.
“Its supply to Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz is yet to be included in the calculation and, as such, its ranking is likely to rise further,” said an industry insider. SK Innovation is planning to invest 3 trillion won in the industry this year alone. The construction of its second plant in Hungary and first plant in the United States is scheduled to start soon.
In the meantime, LG Chem’s supply in the first quarter totaled 2,467.5 MWh with a year-on-year increase of 83 percent while the overall market growth reached 117.9 percent. LG Chem’s global market share fell from 12.6 percent to 10.6 percent and its ranking fell from third to fourth.
Samsung SDI’s supply edged up by 3.1 percent to 705.2 MWh. Its market share dropped from 6.4 percent to 3 percent although it remained in the sixth place. In March, its supply showed a decline of 2.6 percent.
CATL led the market in the first quarter. The Chinese company increased its supply by 174.8 percent from a year earlier and raised its market share by 4.9 percentage points to 23.8 percent.
Panasonic slid from first to second and BYD came in third. BYD boosted its supply by 396.9 percent from the previous year, outpacing all of the other top 10 companies.