China's rechargeable battery market 2008-2009

DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Analysis of China Rechargeable Battery Market 2008-2009" report to its offering.

By the development of commercialization application, rechargeable battery industry has undergone two main development periods: lead-acid batteries and nickel-cadmium batteries; presently the development of rechargeable battery mainly focuses on the nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery and lithium-ion (Li-on) batteries. Moreover, fuel cells and solar cell will be the direction of future development of rechargeable battery.

China has 1,500 lead-acid battery manufacturers and in recent years, the average annual growth rate of output is 20 percent. China's output of lead-acid battery contributes one-third of the world's total output.

Automotive starting battery is the major consumption of lead-acid battery, accounts for about 37 percent of total. Although the development of Ni-MH battery and lithium-ion battery have been in a rapid period, but because of price and other reasons, they can not replace Lead-acid battery's position in Auto starting battery market in many years.

According to the data of China Industrial Association of Power Sources, Ni-MH battery used in HEV has reached 118 million all over the world in 2008. With the development of new energy vehicle, Ni-MH power battery will continue to maintain a certain growth in auto battery market.

Lithium-ion battery has a wide range of applications, such as mobile phone, laptop, power tools, digital cameras, audio devices and game. Mobile phone and laptop are the main markets for lithium-ion battery and will still dominate for a while; but, in the long term future, after the promotion of new energy vehicles, lithium-ion power battery will has a high-speed growth in the auto battery market, therefore, the pattern of lithium-ion battery market may will be changed.

Since lithium-ion battery's industrialization, the world's total output of lithium-ion battery has been grown yearly, but its growth rate in last three-year has been slow down. Affected by the global economy downturn, the growth rate of the global lithium-ion battery might be under 20 percent in 2008.

China's output of lithium-ion battery had been an outbreak period previously, now is entering the stage of steady growth. China's product of lithium-ion battery is mainly for cell phone. Affected by the financial crisis, it is estimated that the growth rate of lithium-ion battery in China might drop to around 11 percent in 2008.

In terms of the battery's industrialization that China has a considerable gap compared with Japan and the United States, which can be reflected in the materials technology industrialization. Comparison of materials technology and manufacturing technology of Ni-MH and lithium-ion battery among China, Japan and the United States, China could produce small-monomer cells relying on imports of cell materials.

However, even if the issue of materials technology solves, the design and manufacturing problems of high-capacity and high-power battery are still as a barrier, which is the key technical problems need to sort out for electric vehicle's battery.