South Korea and Taiwan collaborating on lithium battery technology
2010-12-31 14:23:02 【Print】
Within 2 weeks of the South Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy releasing a preliminary long term energy plan to nearly double its production of lithium next year, the country's top crude oil producer, SK Energy, has announced that it would cooperate with Taiwan's oil refiner Formosa Plastics Group to develop energy storage batteries.
Under a signed agreement, the two companies will collaborate on efforts to develop and produce lithium batteries for energy storage, which can store up to 1,000 times more energy than electric vehicle batteries, SK Energy said in a statement on December 28. The company was chosen as a supplier of lithium-ion batteries for a hybrid electric vehicle project for the Daimler unit Mitsubishi Fuso last year, and for Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors electric vehicles in July.
South Korea is expecting global demand for lithium to increase and according to the release earlier this month the government aims to boost supplies from its mineral interests up to 10 percent of annual requirements next year from 5.5 percent this year. The country is planning to build a facility in the second half of next year to store strategic metals such as lithium, with a capacity of 35 days of consumption.
South Korea's advanced lithium battery manufacturing represented 18 percent of global market share last year, a solid increase from just 6 percent in 2002. Historically, the country has demonstrated significant prominence in the field along with China and Japan, together accounting for as much as 98 percent of the market last year. While Japan's leadership within the market will remain significant in the near term, analysts have suggested the country is gradually losing market share. Japanese manufacturing controlled 55 percent of global advanced battery production last year, down from 78 percent in 2002.
