South Korea’s Samsung SDI Co., the world’s leading maker of TV displays and smartphone batteries, will start production next year at its electric car battery plant in Shaanxi, northwestern China, the province’s governor said Monday.

Samsung SDI signed a preliminary agreement with two Chinese partners earlier this year to build the $600 million plant in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi, as it seeks to win a bigger slice of China’s growing market for electric car batteries.

Lou Qinjian, governor of Shaanxi, told the state-run China Daily newspaper that construction of Samsung SDI’s new plant will begin this year and that it will become operational in 2015.

“Such investments from overseas, in fact, have prompted the province to keep enhancing the operational environment,” Lou was quoted as saying.

Lou made the remarks on the sidelines of China’s annual legislative session, according to the report. (Yonhap)