Battery cells with the logo of LG Energy Solution are displayed at the company headquarters in Seoul, April 23. Reuters-Yonhap

Korea held the largest share of the U.S. import market for battery materials last year, a trade association said Sunday, outranking rivals China and Japan.

The United States imported $9.7 billion worth of key battery materials — anode and cathode materials and separators — from Korea in 2023, up 93.1 percent from $5.02 billion in 2020, according to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), which analyzed U.N. trade data.

Last year, Korea held a 33.7 percent share of the U.S. battery material import market, followed by Japan at 26.4 percent and China at 8.4 percent. In comparison, Korea held an 8.5 percent share in 2020, far behind China's 28.9 percent and Japan's 17.2 percent.

Korea's rise in the U.S. battery materials import market comes amid changes to the global supply chain, sparked by growing trade disputes between the United States and China.

Major Korean battery makers — LG Energy Solution, SK On and Samsung SDI — have recently built large-scale battery plants in the United States, leading to increased U.S. imports of battery materials from Korea.

The sharp growth in the Korean firms' U.S. market share, however, is sparking concerns as the incoming U.S. administration of Donald Trump is reportedly considering imposing tariffs on battery materials.

In an internal document, Trump's transition team recommended changes to restrict support for electric vehicles and impose tariffs on all battery materials globally, Reuters earlier reported.

Korean companies have pushed to operate battery plants in the United States under the current Joe Biden administration's initiative to induce investment in electric vehicles in the country. (Yonhap)