Report: Hitachi, Ube Industries to form Li-Ion battery separator JV
14 January 2011
The Nikkei reports that Hitachi Ltd. and Ube Industries Ltd. will establish a joint venture to make and market separators for high-capacity lithium-ion batteries to better compete in the fast-growing market.
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.
More competition the better.
With more deep pocket firms, better and cheaper mass produced batteries will be around with the next 5 years.
Posted by: HarveyD | 14 January 2011 at 07:36 AM