Recently, research institution EVTank and Ivy Institute of Economics jointly released the "White Paper on the Development of China's Cylindrical Lithium Ion Battery Industry (2023)". Data shows that in 2022, the global shipment of cylindrical lithium-ion batteries decreased by 1.8% year-on-year to 11.96 billion units. The white paper analysis suggests that the main reasons for the decline in global cylindrical battery shipments in 2022 are: (1) weakened demand for electric tools, resulting in a decrease in demand for high magnification cylindrical batteries, and the high shipment volume of electric tool batteries in 2021 has formed a large inventory in downstream tool manufacturers; (2) Ningde Times supplied Tesla with a large number of square batteries, resulting in lower than expected demand for LGES cylindrical batteries; (3) The high capacity cylindrical battery cells used in two wheeled vehicles, including battery swapping, have been replaced by low-cost square and soft pack batteries.
The White Paper shows that the decline in downstream market demand has a much greater impact on Chinese companies than the four companies in Japan and South Korea. According to EVTank data, in 2021, the global market share of cylindrical batteries by four Japanese and Korean companies was 51.5%, while in 2022, this figure increased to 63.0%. From the perspective of the shipment volume of each enterprise, the shipment volume of the four Japanese and Korean enterprises has maintained positive growth, with LGES ranking first with a year-on-year growth rate of 43.7%, while some Chinese cylindrical battery companies have experienced a rare year-on-year decline in their shipments. From the perspective of the competition pattern of major cylindrical battery enterprises in 2022, the industry concentration ratio has further improved. The market share of Panasonic, LGES and Samsung SDI in Japan, South Korea in cylindrical battery has increased from 48.9% in 2021 to 59.7% in 2022, especially the market share of LGES
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