While China’s electric vehicle (EV) makers are struggling amid fierce competition, battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) is consolidating its dominance, building its profits while erecting technological barriers to increase its pricing power.Amid the oil crisis, CATL’s market capitalisation hit an all-time high of HK$2.7 trillion (US$345 billion) on Monday, after its shares rewrote records multiple times in both Shenzhen and Hong Kong, touching 433.33 yuan and HK$701, respectively.The world’s bestselling power battery maker for nine years in a row, CATL in March reported a net profit of 72.2 billion yuan for last year, up 42 per cent from a year earlier.The figure is only 8 per cent lower than the combined profits of China’s top four listed carmakers – BYD, Chery, Geely Auto and SAIC – which reported net income of 78.6 billion yuan. CATL earned 2 per cent more profit than the 70.59 billion yuan made by the country’s 11 listed carmakers, including smaller and loss-making players.“The EV battery industry, with its high requirement for safety, technology and economies of scale, has formed a higher concentration than downstream car manufacturing, where different companies with different backgrounds have been drawn into much fiercer competition,” said Paul Gong, head of China auto research at UBS.