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News that rechargeable laptop batteries by Japan¡¯s Sony are prone to blowing up has been a boon for Korean battery manufacturers led by Samsung SDI and LG Chem. The global rechargeable battery market has been dominated by Japanese manufacturers Sanyo, Sony, Matsushita and Hitachi, who until early 2000 took more than 95 percent of it.
But their Korean rivals are seizing their moment. Samsung SDI¡¯s li-ion rechargeable battery production at its plant in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Provoince, exceeded 34 million cells a month, the world record by a single manufacturer, the company said Wednesday. It is a big jump considering that production stood at 22 million a month early this year, rising 55 percent in just nine months. Samsung SDI boosted production to take advantage of Sony¡¯s explosion woes, analysts say. The Korean manufacturer plans additional production lines after completing construction of a fourth line last month. With that, Samsung SDI expects to overtake Sony as the world no. 2 this year.
The global rechargeable battery market is expected to soar to 1.53 billion cells next year and to 2.537 billion cells by 2010. Samsung SDI is refraining from mentioning Sony¡¯s misfortune publicly, but its CEO Kim Soon-tak would like it to be known that his firm¡¯s motto in manufacturing rechargeable batteries ¡°is safety, safety and safety.¡± And he adds, ¡°Defective rechargeable batteries can lead to human injuries and we are putting our top priority on safety.¡±
LG Chem, too, is poised to gain from Sony¡¯s loss. The company saw its plant operation ratio plummet to the 50 percent level after its own batteries for Apple laptops became subject to a recall by the U.S. firm last year, but it stabilized its operation, and production volume has been growing steadily since the beginning of this year.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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