Despite a slight dip in lithium-ion battery shipments from China to the U.S. in the second quarter, overall U.S. battery imports continued to climb.

Fueled by strong demand for electric vehicles, energy storage stations, consumer electronics and other devices, U.S. lithium-ion battery imports hit a new quarterly high of 148,323 tonnes in the second quarter, jumping 94% from a year ago and up 4.4% from the first three months of 2022, according to data from Panjiva.

That marked the eighth consecutive quarter of rising quarterly battery imports, which have skyrocketed 358% over the last two years, Panjiva data shows.

The ongoing trend of increasing imports comes as automakers, battery suppliers and energy storage companies invest billions of dollars into new domestic manufacturing to come online over the next several years. Those investments could benefit from new incentives approved as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

China, home to Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., the world's largest lithium-ion battery maker, shipped 109,017 tonnes to the U.S. in the second quarter of 2022, accounting for 73.5% of imports in the period. That was down from 77.5% in the first quarter at 110,081 tonnes of battery imports.

An affiliate of BYD Company Ltd., in which Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. owns a minority share, was one of the most prolific shippers of batteries to the U.S. in the quarter, sending large volumes to another BYD subsidiary in Los Angeles, the Panjiva data shows. BYD has an electric bus manufacturing facility in Lancaster, Calif., and also supplies batteries to automakers and energy storage developers.

A North American energy storage subsidiary of Wärtsilä Oyj Abp received numerous shipments from Jiangsu RCT Power Technology Co. Ltd.

Battery imports from Japan also declined in the second quarter to a 9.3% share from 11% in the first quarter. Toyota Motor Corp. shipped large volumes of batteries to U.S.-based affiliates, while consumer electronics company SANYO Electric Co. Ltd. continued exports to U.S.-based subsidiaries of its parent company, Panasonic Holdings Corp.

South Korea increased its share of battery U.S. lithium-ion battery imports to 7% from 4.7%, as Samsung SDI Co. Ltd. supplied energy storage specialists including Fluence Energy Inc. and AES Distributed Energy Inc., an affiliate of AES Corp. Samsung also supplied batteries in the second quarter to a U.S.-based affiliate of fellow South Korean battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution Ltd.

LG, in turn, in the second quarter supplied batteries to EV upstart Lucid Group Inc., electric-bus maker Proterra Inc. and Fifth Standard Solar PV, a U.S. affiliate of Germany-based E.ON SE, among others.

German automakers BMW AG, Volkswagen AG and Mercedes-Benz Group AG were also active shippers of batteries to the U.S. in the second quarter. Overall, U.S. lithium-ion battery shipments from Germany roughly doubled to 4,072 tonnes in the second quarter from less than 2,000 tonnes in the first quarter.

Panjiva is the supply chain research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, a division of S&P Global Inc.

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