Foreign Battery Firms Improve Layout in Evolving Chinese Market

(Yicai) May 15 -- Overseas battery companies, such as Japan's Hitachi Group, are accelerating their layout in the Chinese market, where competition is no longer focused on capacity and price competition but on technology, solutions, and service capabilities.China is driving the global battery industry, but it is also facing some challenges, such as structural overcapacity, intensified low-price competition, technical bottlenecks, and higher compliance requirements for overseas expansion. Firms are in urgent need of transformation towards intelligent manufacturing, supply chain security, and green and low-carbon development.From this situation emerge opportunities for overseas companies, which have experience in industrial upgrading and technological advantages.At the China International Battery Fair in Shenzhen, more than 3,000 foreign firms from over 90 countries and regions, including the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, and South Korea, showcased their cutting-edge technologies and solutions from the entire battery industry chain, from power and energy storage batteries to key raw materials, intelligent equipment, and battery recycling and utilization solutions.Among them are Hitachi and several of its subsidiaries, including Hitachi High-Technologies and Hitachi High-Technologies Analytical Science."China accounts for nearly 70 percent of the global power battery output, and it is a very important growth market for Hitachi," Long Jian, chief marketing officer and deputy general manager of Hitachi China, told Yicai at the CIBF.Chinese battery firms are going all-out to upgrade towards high-end, intelligent, and green manufacturing, so they are in urgent need of high-end, intelligent, and environmentally friendly technologies and solutions, which is exactly where Hitachi's strengths lie, he noted.To deeply root in the Chinese battery market, Hitachi has launched a dedicated incubation fund focusing on technological innovation and other demands, with startup capital from the Japanese headquarters, Long said, without revealing the specific amount.Hitachi's clients in China include battery manufacturers and battery raw material firms. "Lithium battery enterprises are most concerned about product performance, stability, reliability, and the full life cycle cost, but they also attach great importance to after-sales support capabilities," Gu Jiahui, chairman and president of Hitachi High-Tech, told Yicai.Chinese lithium battery companies are accelerating their expansion into overseas markets, so their demand for global technical response and service capabilities is surging, Gu added.Similar to Hitachi's layout in China, French software company Dassault Systèmes, US security systems company Tyco International, and South Korean battery and electronic materials manufacturer Samsung SDI have also recently been strengthening their cooperation with Chinese battery equipment enterprises.On March 31, Dassault and Guangzhou-based Inpai Battery Technology announced they will deepen their cooperation on digital research and development, integrated process manufacturing, industrial chain coordination, and artificial intelligence applications, further supporting Inpai Battery's development in the power and energy storage battery business.Editor: Futura Costaglione