The combined global market share of three major South Korean battery makers declined last year from a year earlier, due largely to the growth of their Chinese rivals, data showed Monday.

The cumulative market share of LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES), SK Innovation Co. and Samsung SDI Co. came to 30.4 percent in the January-December period, down 4.3 percentage points from the previous year, according to market tracker SNE Research.

LGES, which supplies electric vehicle batteries to Ford, Tesla and Volkswagen, retained second place for two straight years, but its market share retreated 3.1 percentage points to 20.3 percent.

SK On Co., the battery-making unit of SK Innovation, ranked fifth with a 5.6 percent market share, up 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier. Samsung SDI's corresponding figure fell 1.3 percentage points to 4.5 percent, with its global ranking also coming down by one spot to sixth.

Chinese battery giant CATL retained the top spot with 32.6 percent, up 8 percentage points in the same period, backed by the strong growth in China's electric vehicle market. CATL has maintained the top spot since 2017.

Japanese Panasonic came in third with 12.2 percent, followed by Chinese battery maker BYD with 8.8 percent.

"The global electric vehicle battery market continued to grow last year, led by Chinese companies," SNE Research said in a release. "As Chinese companies are pushing for overseas expansions, that will likely act as a downside risk for Korean battery makers."

The cumulative amount of battery energy usage from electric vehicles reached 296.8 gigawatt hours (GWh) globally in 2021, compared with 146.8 GWh the previous year, the report said. (Yonhap)