Nikkei Asian Review reported that Sony Inc. decided not to sell its lithium battery business because the company has a positive outlook for it.

Since Japanese Yen is relatively weak, and smartphone battery demand is getting stronger, Sony believes that they are able to turn lithium battery business’s debt into profit in overseas markets. Meanwhile, Sony has realized that more demands have been from certain new products.

However, although Sony is a pioneer of lithium battery for laptops and mobile devices, it has been facing challenges from Korean rivals’ cheaper products these years. Moreover, the Japanese government had tried to help Sony sell its battery branch to a Joint Venture of Nissan and NEC but failed and this trade has been in a deadlock since then. According to Nikkei’s report, Sony has officially stated that they will keep the lithium battery business and view it as a core business in the future.

Last year, Sony sold their chemistry business to governmental funds and turned to focus more on camera, gaming consoles and mobile devices in order to revive the consumer electronics markets.