Japan's Panasonic wants a bigger share of China's battery market, betting on the country's growing market for power-hungry devices such as digital cameras and portable audio players.

The firm plans to achieve this with the help of its new longer-lasting Oxyride battery which will start to be sold in China this month. The cells are supposed to last 50-100 per cent longer than standard alkaline ones, which are currently popular in the country.

"We aim to take a 10 per cent share of China's dry battery market by 2007," said Mitsuru Ohara, manager of Panasonic's battery sales division in China.

Ohara estimated the demand for dry batteries in China currently stands at about 7.5 billion a year.

Panasonic, a unit of Matsushita, has sold 120 million dry batteries in China, less than 2 per cent of the market share.

Panasonic is the world's largest maker of dry batteries - it has a 26 per cent share of the global marketplace, according to Tetsu Kimoto, president of Panasonic Corporation of China.

"China's consumer electronics market is becoming increasingly digitalized, which is providing a big opportunity for our battery business," he said.

Revenue from China's consumer electronics (CE) market is forecast to hit US$58.7 billion this year, compared to last year's US$53.7 billion, according to US research firm iSuppli Corp.

Digital cameras and MP3 players, which are becoming increasingly affordable for Chinese consumers, are the major driving force in the CE market.

Sales of digital cameras in China last year hit 2.648 million, up 196.9 per cent year-on-year, according to Beijing-based research firm CCW Research. Around 3.3 million MP3 players were sold in China last year, up almost 144 per cent on the previous year. The increasing popularity of digital products such as cameras and MP3 players has increased demand for batteries, especially those with a longer life.

The firm introduced Oxyride batteries in Japan last April. Last year, Panasonic sold 100 million such batteries, according to Takashi Tsumori, general manager of the International sales & Marketing Group of Matsushita Battery Industrial Co Ltd.

"Globally we aim to sell 200 million units of Oxyride batteries this year," he said.

China could be a major battlefield. Beijing-based CCID Consulting predicted the market for batteries using new materials including the solar cell, alkaline cells and fuel batteries will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 37 per cent from 2005 to 2009.

Panasonic has five battery manufacturing facilities in China. Total sales of batteries have exceeded 3.9 billion yuan (US$481 million).

Oxyride batteries will be imported to China from Japan, Panasonic said.

(China Daily September 15, 2005)