Shifting Landscape! 2025 Global Lithium Battery Trade Report: China Leads, Europe Surges, North America Slips to Second Place

I. Global Trade Overview: Volume Exceeds $100 Billion, China Takes the Lead

Trade Scale: In 2025, total global trade in lithium batteries exceeded $100 billion. China’s exports reached $76.746 billion(approx. ¥570.86 billion), up 55% year-on-year, accounting for 82.8% of global shipments.
China’s Performance: Annual exports: 679 billion units; December exports: $7.58 billion(+25.31% YoY), 427 million units (-4.43% MoM), showing both year-end momentum and short-term adjustment.
Market Resilience: Rapid growth continued amid a complex international environment, but fierce competition and cost transmission led to an obvious “trading price for volume”

With advantages in the full industrial chain, technology and production capacity, China has become the absolute global supply core.
The U.S. and Japan are net importers: U.S. imports from China reached $11.919 billionin 2025.

Core Destinations: Europe Replaces North America, Emerging Markets Rise (Top 3 Export Markets for China’s Lithium Batteries in 2025)

Europe (led by Germany) surges to the top: Energy transition policies have driven booming demand for electric vehicles and residential energy storage, with its share rising continuously.
North America contracts significantly: U.S. tariff hikes (58.4%) suppressed demand; earlier “rush exports” have overdrawn future demand.
Emerging markets boom: Exports to all regions except North America grew by over 30%. Remarkable growth was seen in Chile, Australia, Saudi Arabia, etc., reflecting the success of China’s market diversification strategy.

New energy vehicles: Global electrification accelerates, representing the largest source of demand.
Energy storage systems: Surge in European residential and grid-scale storage demand, becoming the second growth curve.
Consumer electronics: Stable traditional demand supporting basic trade volume.

IV. Core Conclusions and Trends
1. Pattern reshaping: Global lithium battery trade has officially entered a new phase of “China leads, Europe rises, Americas adjusts”.
2. Risks and opportunities coexist:
- Risks:Growing pressure from trade barriers, price wars and overcapacity.
- Opportunities: Europe and emerging markets (Southeast Asia, Middle East, Latin America) have become new growth engines.
(III) Future Competitive Focus

Competition in the global lithium battery industry will gradually shift from pure scale expansion to a high-quality development track.The core competitive focus in the future will concentrate on three areas:
- Upgrading and iteration of high-end technologies
- Overseas localized productionlayout
- Global supply chain security