Matsushita to build new lithium-ion battery plant

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The Matsushita Electric Industrial Co group plans to build a lithium-ion battery plant in Osaka at a cost of more than 100 billion yen, company officials said Friday.

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The facility, which will be capable of producing up to 50 million units of such batteries a month, will be one of the largest lithium-ion battery plants in the world, according to the officials. It is slated to go on stream in fiscal 2010 at the earliest, they said.

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The plant will be operated by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co, which has three lithium-ion battery plants with a combined monthly output capacity of 25 million units.

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After the launch of the new plant, the Matsushita group is expected to overtake Sony Corp <6758> as the second biggest player in terms of global market share and come close behind industry leader Sanyo Electric Co.

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Demand for lithium-ion batteries, used for such products as notebook personal computers, digital cameras and mobile phones, is growing sharply worldwide.

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