CATL market share rises to 35% in Q1 as global power lithium battery rankings emerge

The global market share of Chinese lithium battery companies rose in the first quarter, with CATL (300750.SZ) topping the list.

On May 2, data from South Korean market research firm SNE showed that the global installed base of power lithium batteries in the first quarter was 95.1 GWh, nearly double that of the same period last year.

In the first quarter, CATL's global installed base of power lithium batteries reached 33.3 GWh, up 137.7% year-on-year, maintaining its top position.

By the end of last year, CATL had been the world's largest power lithium battery company for five years. CATL's market share reached 35% in the first quarter, compared to 28.5% in the same period in 2021.

In the first quarter of this year, CATL's revenue was RMB48.6 billion, up 153% year-on-year, while net profit was RMB1.49 billion, down 23%. This is a rare decline in the company's performance since its IPO, importantly because of the pressure the company took on in the first quarter to increase the price of raw materials.

CATL's biggest competitor, South Korean company LG New Energy, ranked second on the statistical list, with 15.1GWh of power lithium batteries installed in the first quarter, up 40% year-on-year. Its market share was 15.9%, a drop of more than six percentage points.

LG New Energy completed its initial public offering (IPO) and listed its shares in January this year, raising a total of approximately 68.3 billion yuan.

LG Energy CEO KwonYoungSoo said at a press conference in January that he expected the company to overtake CATL in market share in the future, but did not give a specific timeline.

A total of six Chinese companies were included in the top 10 list. In addition to CATL, they include BYD (002594.SZ), China Innovation Aviation, Guoxuan Hi-Tech (002074.SZ), Beehive Energy and YW Lithium (300014.SZ).

All of the above Chinese companies saw their market shares rise. Among them, BYD overtook Japanese battery company Panasonic and jumped to the third place in the list. Its installed base reached 10.5GWh, up 220% year-on-year, and its market share improved to 11.1%.

Sinovel increased its global market share by two percentage points in the first quarter, overtaking Samsung SDI to jump to sixth. EVE RLIGHT surpassed Vision Power to rank tenth with a 1.2% market share.

LG New Energy, SKOn and Samsung SDI had a combined market share of 26.3% in the first quarter, compared to over 33% in the same period last year.