Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology maintained its leading position in the global market in January, SNE Research said.

CATL had a 39.7 percent share of the worldwide battery market in January, a 5.8 percentage points increase from a year earlier, according to the report released yesterday by the South Korean market research company.

CATL’s battery installations surged 88 percent to 20.5 gigawatt-hours on a year ago, while the global total hit about 51.5 GWh, up 61 percent, the report said.

Ningde-based CATL had an almost 40 percent share of the battery market in China, the world’s biggest electric vehicle market, as it supplies major automakers such as Tesla, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen

China’s BYD ranked second, the report showed. Its battery installations jumped 34 percent year on year to 7.4 GWh, lifting its global market share 2.8 percentage points to 14.4 percent.

BYD has been able to cut costs thanks to supply chain integration, such as in-house battery supply and vehicle manufacturing. The Shenzhen-based company has been expanding its global market share with increased sales of models such as its Atto 3 and Dolphin that are mainly sold outside of China.

Coming in third was South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, with battery installations of 5.9 GWh, up 34 percent, and a market share of 11.4 percent, down 2.3 points. But the gap with BYD has shrunk from 3.5 points in the same month of last year to 3 points.

China has six of the top 10 global EV battery manufacturers, with a combined market share of 64.7 percent, the report said.