Japan's Maxell to Terminate Lithium-Ion Battery Production

Tokyo, March 24 (Jiji Press)--Japanese electronic parts and materials maker Maxell Ltd. said Monday that it will terminate its production of prismatic lithium-ion batteries as early as May.

Maxell will dissolve Chinese subsidiary Wuxi Maxell Energy Co., which makes the product, to focus the group's business resources for secondary batteries on all-solid-state batteries.

Production of prismatic lithium-ion batteries started at Maxell in 1996. They have been widely used for mobile phones, smartphones and portable video game consoles.

However, the company's lithium-ion battery operations have become less profitable in recent years due to a shift to laminated lithium-ion batteries.

Regarding the end of the production, Maxell will book an inventory valuation loss of 1.2 billion yen and an extraordinary loss of 2.8 billion yen mainly to pay additional retirement fees to outgoing employees in the year ending this month.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]