BEIJING, April 20 -- China's lithium-ion battery industry maintained a steady growth momentum in the first two months of this year, official data showed.

The total output of lithium-ion batteries in the January-February period surpassed 117 gigawatt-hours (GWh), rising 15 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

During the period, the output of lithium-ion batteries for power storage exceeded 17 GWh, while the installed capacity of power batteries for new energy vehicles stood at around 50 GWh.

Exports of lithium-ion batteries from January to February reached 61.94 billion yuan (about 8.72 billion U.S. dollars), according to the data.