---
title: "Samsung SDI's 73% Utilization Applies to Small Batteries Only"
canonical: "https://anchor.is/the-hysteresis/issue/11/korea/article/35825/samsung-sdis-73-utilization-applies-to-small-batteries"
publication: "The Hysteresis"
publisher: "The Hysteresis"
language: "en-US"
guide: "https://anchor.is/the-hysteresis/llms.txt"
author: "Ronan Adike"
author_url: "https://anchor.is/the-hysteresis/team/74"
issue: 11
section: "korea"
section_name: "Korea"
published: 2026-08-21
updated: 2026-08-22
word_count: 244
source_links: 4
---

# Samsung SDI's 73% Utilization Applies to Small Batteries Only

*By [Ronan Adike](<https://anchor.is/the-hysteresis/team/74/markdown>)*

*August 21, 2026*

[Read on the website](<https://anchor.is/the-hysteresis/issue/11/korea/article/35825/samsung-sdis-73-utilization-applies-to-small-batteries>)

Samsung SDI's H1 2026 [DART filing](https://dart.fss.or.kr/report/viewer.do?rcpNo=20260814003578&dcmNo=11537677&eleId=12&offset=149138&length=27018&dtd=dart4.xsd) (August 14) discloses 73% capacity utilization — 860 million units produced against 1.178 billion unit capacity. The scope is small-battery facilities only: Cheonan and Tianjin consumer cell plants ([Edaily](https://en.edaily.co.kr/news/eda202608145759/), August 14, reporting directly from the filing). The full-year 2025 figure of 50.4% covered the same small-battery scope. The filing provides no utilization figure for medium- and large-format EV or ESS operations.

Samsung SDI's prismatic ESS cells — the product BESS integrators are qualifying — sit in the medium/large category the filing leaves unaddressed. FEOC-compliant supply estimates that incorporate 73% are applying a consumer-cell figure to a format category it does not represent. The small-battery recovery is directionally useful as a consumer electronics demand signal. It carries no information about available capacity at StarPlus or elsewhere in the medium/large footprint.

- **Disclosed scope:** Small batteries only — Cheonan (Korea) and Tianjin (China) consumer cell plants
- **H1 2026 output:** 860M units / 1.178B capacity = 73% ([DART filing](https://dart.fss.or.kr/report/viewer.do?rcpNo=20260814003578&dcmNo=11537677&eleId=12&offset=149138&length=27018&dtd=dart4.xsd))
- **FY 2025 comparator:** 1.269B / 2.52B = 50.4%, same small-battery scope
- **Medium/large utilization:** Not disclosed in the H1 filing
- **ESS shipment proxy (Tier 3):** 6.4 GWh global ESS in H1 2026 per [Battery-Tech Network](https://battery-tech.net/battery-markets-news/global-ess-battery-shipments-up-71-to-461-3-gwh-in-h1-2026/) citing SMM — not company-disclosed, methodology unspecified
- **NA ESS share:** Fell to 6.1% from 9.7% YoY ([CnEVPost](https://cnevpost.com/2026/08/04/global-ess-battery-market-share-h1-2026/), Aug 4)
- **Denominator caution:** The 84%→50% (2022–2025) series from Seoul Economic Daily may use a broader scope; comparison to 73% requires confirming a common denominator

## More

- [Korea — Issue 11](<https://anchor.is/the-hysteresis/issue/11/korea/markdown>)
- [Issue 11](<https://anchor.is/the-hysteresis/issue/11/markdown>)
- [Publication guide](<https://anchor.is/the-hysteresis/llms.txt>)