South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. was the No. 2 supplier of electric vehicle (EV) batteries in the world in January after China's CATL, a market research firm said Tuesday.

LG Energy Solution, which spun off from LG Chem Ltd. in December last year, shipped 2.5 gigawatt-hour (GWh) equivalents of EV batteries in January, up 50.6 percent from a year earlier, according to SNE Research.

But its global market share shrank to 18.5 percent from 23.9 percent in the same month last year.

China's CATL retained the top spot with a supply of 4.3 GWh, which was up 166.2 percent from a year earlier and accounted for 31.2 percent of the global total.

Japan's Panasonic took third place with a 15.6 percent share, followed by China's BYD with 8.9 percent and Samsung SDI Co. of South Korea with 4.8 percent.

Samsung SDI supplied 0.7 GWh equivalents of EV batteries in January, up 18.6 percent from the same month a year ago.

China's CALB came next with 4.1 percent, trailed by South Korea's SK Innovation Co. with 3.9 percent.

The Seoul-based market researcher said Chinese EV battery manufacturers made big strides in January, weighing down on South Korean rivals.

Meanwhile, the global supply of EV batteries came to 13.7 GWh in January, nearly double the amount registered a year earlier. (Yonhap)