The United States has become the world’s largest buyer of South Korean secondary batteries. This is because the electric vehicles and energy storage systems in use in the United States are increasing.
The Korea International Trade Association announced on June 27 that US$832 million of South Korean lithium batteries were exported to the United States for the first five months of this year. The amount jumped about 400 percent year on year and already exceeded last year’s total. In that period, South Korea’s battery exports added up to US$2,259 million.
The largest buyer was China from 2012 to 2016 and Germany from 2017 to 2020. At present, the number of secondary battery manufacturers is very small and only LG Energy Solution and Panasonic are producing the batteries in quantity in the United States, which means it cannot but rely on imports.
The exports are likely to continue to increase for a while in that, for example, LG Energy Solution’s and SK Innovation’s new plants in the United States will be opened next year at the earliest. According to market research firms, the U.S. lithium battery demand is expected to increase from US$6.7 billion to US$12 billion from this year to 2025.