Hitachi Ltd. and Ube Industries Ltd. will establish a joint venture to make and market key components for high-capacity lithium-ion batteries to better compete in the fast-growing market, company sources said Friday.
Global demand for high-capacity li-ion batteries, which can be used to power electric vehicles and store electricity generated from sunlight, is surging. This is heating up competition to tap the growing demand.
The firms want to bolster their market position by achieving economies of scale. Specifically, Hitachi subsidiary Hitachi Maxwell Ltd. and Ube Industries will form a venture to develop, produce and market separators, a component essential to ensuring the safety of li-ion batteries.
Ube Industries is the global leader in electrolytic solutions, another key component, but ranks fourth or below in separators.
In the new venture, Hitachi Maxwell will provide its microscopic integrated processing technology, needed to produce high-performance separators, for Ube Industries, which wants to close the gap with Asahi Kasei Corp, which holds a roughly 40% share of the global electrolytic solution market.
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