Panasonic Battery (Shenyang) Co., Ltd. announced its dissolution and liquidation

Recently, an announcement dated March 29th showed that Panasonic Battery (Shenyang) Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, announced that it would completely cease production by May 31, 2023. , entered the dissolution and liquidation process and no longer carried out any business activities.

This announcement means that this company, which has invested and built factories in Shenyang since 1994, has ended 29 years of production and officially withdrawn from the Chinese market.

According to the data, Panasonic Battery (Shenyang) Co., Ltd. ("PSBS" for short) was founded on October 18, 1994. It was jointly invested and constructed by Panasonic Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. and Shenyang Northeast Storage Battery Co., Ltd. (formerly Shenyang Battery Factory), with a registered capital of It is worth 22.2004 million yen (approximately 1.147 billion yuan) and covers an area of ​​62,500 square meters (2012).

At the beginning of entering the Chinese market, Panasonic Batteries fully introduced the advanced technology, equipment and testing systems of Panasonic Corporation of Japan, quickly opened up the situation with many advantages, and became a well-known enterprise in the battery industry.

It is reported that the products produced by Panasonic's battery factory have been sold to more than 50 countries around the world. Because of their advantages such as good consistency, high specific energy, long life, safety, reliability and no leakage, the products have won wide recognition within and outside the industry.

PSBS has successively passed the ISO9001 quality system certification, ISO14001 environmental management system certification and OHSAS18001 health and safety management system certification. It has been awarded the titles of "China's Double Excellent Foreign Investment Enterprise" and "Shenyang's Top Ten Foreign-invested Enterprises for Export Earning" in consecutive years. The products have obtained American UL certification and German VdS certification. The products comply with the strict requirements of China's ROHS directive. The company has fully introduced Japan's Panasonic's advanced technology, equipment and testing systems, and provides more than 40 specifications of "Panasonic" brand medium and small sealed lead-acid batteries to all over the world. They are mainly used in UPS power supplies, emergency lights, power tools, and electric bicycles. As well as finance, communication systems and other fields. Among them, battery products for backup power supply have the characteristics of good consistency, high specific energy, long life, safety, reliability and no leakage.

Media analysis said that PSBS chose to withdraw from the Chinese market at this time, mainly due to declining competitiveness.

Specifically, as the technology of the battery industry continues to decline, coupled with the rapid development of the domestic new energy industry, competition in the battery industry has begun to intensify. Against this background, some domestic battery companies can obtain orders by virtue of their small scale, flexibility, low cost, and loose execution standards when participating in market competition.

In contrast, Panasonic's large battery scale, high technical standards, and high corporate operating costs will turn into disadvantages and lose its advantage in order prices. Just like many foreign-funded companies that once thrived in China have left the Chinese market, Panasonic batteries have left a market that is too competitive.

Panasonic has always had a tradition of "stopping losses in time". For example, in March 2021, Panasonic's organic EL TV production business at its factory in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, was suspended due to poor profits due to low output and high costs.

For another example, in 2021, Panasonic's solar panel and component production plants will also end related businesses and withdraw from market competition.

According to reports, the top ten domestic battery brands are all local brands, such as CATL, Chaowei Battery, Camel Battery, Tianneng Power, etc. Panasonic's competitiveness is no longer as good as before.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to batteries, Panasonic is also a pioneer in the lithium battery industry. It cooperated with Tesla in 2008 and is one of the latter's main power battery suppliers. Public data shows that at its peak, Panasonic's global market share of power batteries exceeded 30%. However, with the rapid development of Chinese and Korean companies, Panasonic's market share in the field of lithium-ion power batteries has also continued to decline.

The SNE Research report shows that the total installed capacity of global new energy vehicle (EV, PHEV, HEV) batteries in 2022 will be 517.9GWh, a year-on-year increase of 71.8%. Among them, CATL ranked first in the world for the sixth consecutive year, with installed capacity reaching 191.6GWh in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 92.5%, and its global share increased from 33% in 2021 to 37% in 2022. BYD also achieved an installed capacity of 70.4GWh, a year-on-year increase of 167.1%, and its market share increased to 13.6%, which is basically the same as LG New Energy. Panasonic fell to fourth place, with an installed capacity of 38GWh that year and a global market share of 7.3%.

From the perspective of lithium batteries in the battery segment, Panasonic was the world's number one lithium battery giant in the past. It is the originator of lithium batteries and is a well-deserved predecessor in consuming lithium batteries or power batteries.

As early as 1994, Panasonic successfully developed rechargeable lithium batteries. In the following nearly 10 years, Panasonic has been firmly at the forefront of consumer lithium batteries. Japanese companies including Panasonic and Sanyo have almost monopolized the global lithium battery market.

In 2008, Panasonic began to cooperate with Tesla to develop the power battery field. With Tesla's rapid growth in sales, Panasonic has won the title of No. 1 in power battery shipments.

In its cooperation with Tesla, Panasonic has been deeply involved in cylindrical batteries, and was the first in the industry to achieve mass production of NCA 18650+ silicon carbon anode cylindrical batteries. From 18650 to 21700 and then to 4680, Panasonic has maximized the performance of cylindrical batteries. It has long led the industry in terms of energy density and cell consistency.

Panasonic's global battery market share once reached over 30%.

Big changes occurred in 2017. At that time, with the explosion of China's new energy market and the rapid rise of China's power battery industry chain, Panasonic's power battery shipments were overtaken by CATL and ranked second; by 2020, Panasonic was surpassed by LG New Energy and fell to second place. Three; by 2022, Panasonic was surpassed by BYD again and fell to fourth place.

The battle for "second place" in power battery shipments currently has BYD ahead of LG New Energy and has nothing to do with Panasonic batteries.

The future of Panasonic batteries is still unknown whether it will make a comeback, maintain the status quo, or continue to decline in market share.