(Yicai) May 15 -- Overseas battery companies, including Japan’s Hitachi Group, are growing their presence in China, where competition in the sector is no longer just about capacity and price but increasingly about technology, solutions, and service capabilities.

While China is the engine of the global battery industry, it also faces mounting challenges, including overcapacity, intensifying price wars, technical bottlenecks, and tougher compliance requirements for overseas expansion. As a result, businesses are under pressure to upgrade toward smart manufacturing, supply chain security, and greener, lower-carbon growth.

That backdrop is creating opportunities for foreign companies with experience in industrial upgrading and technological advantages.

At the two-day China International Battery Fair in Shenzhen, which ended today, more than 3,000 foreign companies from over 90 countries and regions, including the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, and South Korea, showcased their cutting-edge technologies and solutions spanning the full battery industry chain, from power and energy storage to key raw materials, smart equipment, and battery recycling and reuse.

Among them were Tokyo-based Hitachi and several of its subsidiaries, including Hitachi High-Technologies and Hitachi High-Technologies Analytical Science.

"China accounts for nearly 70 percent of the global power battery output, and it’s a very important growth market for Hitachi," Long Jian, chief marketing officer and deputy general manager of Hitachi China, told Yicai at the CIBF.

Chinese battery makers are pushing hard toward high-end, intelligent, and green manufacturing, and urgently need advanced, smart, and environmentally friendly technologies and solutions, Long said, adding that these are precisely the areas where Hitachi's strengths lie.

To deepen its presence in the Chinese market, Hitachi has launched a dedicated incubation fund focused on technological innovation and related needs, with initial capital provided by its Japanese headquarters, Long said, without disclosing the amount.

Hitachi’s clients in China include battery manufacturers and battery material suppliers. “Lithium-battery companies are most concerned about product performance, stability, reliability, and full life-cycle cost, while also placing great importance on after-sales support,” Gu Jiahui, chairman and president of Hitachi High-Tech, told Yicai.

Gu added that Chinese lithium battery suppliers are stepping up their overseas expansion, which is driving a surge in demand for global technical support and service capabilities.

In a similar move, French software company Dassault Systèmes, US security systems provider Tyco International, and South Korea battery and electronic materials producer Samsung SDI have also recently beefed up their cooperation with Chinese battery equipment makers.

Dassault and Guangzhou-based Inpai Battery Technology announced on March 31 that they will deepen their collaboration on digital research and development, integrated process manufacturing, industrial chain coordination, and artificial intelligence applications, further supporting Inpai's development in the power and energy storage battery business.

Editor: Futura Costaglione