Four agencies held a joint roundtable, to regulate competitive order in the power and energy-storage battery industry

On January 7, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and the National Energy Administration (NEA) jointly convened a roundtable on the power and energy-storage battery industry, chaired by Xin Guobin, a member of MIIT’s Party leadership and vice minister. The session was aimed at thoroughly studying and implementing Chairman Xi Jinping’s directives, executing decisions by the Party leadership and the State Council, and focusing on how to further regulate competition in the power and energy-storage battery sector to support healthy, orderly development.

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The meeting noted that China’s power and energy-storage battery industry has expanded rapidly in recent years, achieving a provisional competitive advantage globally. Even so, driven by multiple factors, irrational behaviors — from blind investment and construction to low-price competition — have surfaced, disrupting normal market order and undermining the sector’s sustainability. That makes standardized governance urgent, the meeting said. To address these challenges, a slate of measures was proposed.

On market oversight, authorities will step up price-enforcement inspections, intensify checks on production consistency and product quality, and crack down on intellectual-property violations to safeguard fair competition. On capacity management, the plan is to improve capacity monitoring and tiered warning mechanisms, using stronger macro controls to ward off overcapacity risks. The meeting also backed industry self-discipline, with associations guiding companies to plan capacity more scientifically and to build a market order where quality is rewarded with appropriate pricing and competition remains fair. Regional coordination was emphasized as well: through central-local collaboration and a mix of measures, local companies will be guided to strictly curb redundant construction, promoting coordinated development across the sector.

Participants included department heads from MIIT, NDRC, SAMR and NEA; officials from some local industry and information technology authorities; and representatives from leading power battery and energy-storage battery companies, alliances and industry associations. Through broad exchanges, the meeting clarified both the urgency and the specific path for regulating competitive order in the industry.

Overall, the roundtable set a direction for the future of power and energy-storage batteries: strengthen oversight, optimize capacity, encourage self-discipline and coordinate across regions to eliminate irrational competition, restore a more rational market and ensure long-term, steady growth. The discussion stayed focused on practical issues, with no broader policy changes announced — a sign of cross-agency consensus.