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Furukawa Electric announced that it will commission a new electrolytic copper foil factory, located in Taiwan, two months ahead of schedule, in July 2012. The facility is designed to produce copper foil suitable for the manufacture of lithium ion batteries. Furukawa decided to offshore the foil production capacity last year because the appreciated yen had been limiting its competitiveness in supplying the high growth automotive lithium-ion battery market in Taiwan. The company expects to halve its electricity costs in Taiwan, which represent 30% of the total cost of electrolytic foil production in Japan. Furthermore, it is feared that these costs in Japan are likely to escalate with the ongoing strain on power generation and transmission suppliers. This was caused by the continuing temporary closure of nuclear power facilities as it reviews its position on the use of nuclear power generation.

Air batteries, which create electricity from a reaction between oxygen in the air and a zinc negative electrode, can store five times as much electricity as a similarly sized li-ion battery, although there are problems before they can be commercialised

Mitsui Mining & Smelting addressed this by covering the silicon with thin copper and creating a structure with spaces to accommodate the swelling of the cell inside its negative electrode.