(MENAFN- QNA) South Korean rechargeable battery manufacturers such as Samsung SDI and LG Chem have extended their lead in the global market despite competition from Japanese and Chinese rivals by successfully diversifying their product lines, industrywide data showed Sunday.
A finding by B3, a dedicated battery research agency in Japan, showed the world's output of secondary batteries jumped 9.7% on-year in the second quarter to 11.57 billion cells, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agency.
Rechargeable batteries or secondary cells are widely used in mobile gadgets like smartphones, digital cameras and power tools, as well as electric bikes, cars and hybrid vehicles.
Of the total, Samsung SDI's output surged 16.7% on-year to 315 million cells for a market share of 27.2%. This was followed by a 16.5% market share enjoyed by LG Chem that made 234 million cells in the three-month period.
The market share of Japanese companies stood pat at 27.5%, while numbers for China backtracked 4.3 percentage points to 20.7%.
At the present rate, South Korean companies, including some minor players, may well account for more than half of all rechargeable batteries sold in the world in 2014.
Analysts said South Korean companies have been expanding their market footprint by diversifying into the power tools and the automotive sectors.
Samsung SDI has started supplying toolmakers such as Bosch and SD and B, and currently accounts for 50.1% of the market. It also holds 27.7% of the powered bike field, with LG Chem also doing well in these areas.
Such diversification benefited South Korean companies because demand for batteries for the information technology (IT) sectors dipped 7.5% on-year in the April-June period.
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