Car firms vouch for Kobe parts
• No issue with aluminium products, say Toyota, Mazda, Honda and Nissan
Four Japanese car makers said on Thursday they had found no safety issues with aluminium parts supplied by Kobe Steel.
Four Japanese vehicle manufacturers say they have found no safety issues with aluminium parts supplied by Kobe Steel, allaying concern that falsified quality data on products from the steel maker had compromised their vehicles.
Kobe Steel shares surged after the vehicle manufacturers’ statements, but the steel maker still has to contend with a US justice department probe, while checks continue at hundreds of companies involved in supply chains spanning the globe.
Japan’s third-biggest steel maker admitted earlier in October it had falsified specifications on the strength and durability of aluminium, copper and steel products, along with materials for optical disks.
The falsifications stretch back for more than 10 years, an executive said this week.
Since then vehicle, aircraft and other manufacturers around the world have scrambled to identify potential hazards in their products.
Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda said that external parts used in their cars and that were made from aluminium directly supplied by Kobe were safe.
Kobe Steel shares ended the day nearly 7% higher but are still down by a third since it announced the data falsification.
“We confirmed that the materials satisfy applicable statutory standards and our own internal standard, for key safety and durability requirements for vehicles,” Toyota said.
It identified aluminium plates supplied by Kobe for the bonnets and rear hatches of Toyota and Lexus brand vehicles. Though outside Toyota’s specifications, they were still safe to use.
While Subaru and other vehicle manufacturers said they were still investigating the issue, the announcements by Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda suggest that Kobe’s cheating scandal may have a limited effect on product safety.
Nonetheless, the company’s fate hangs in the balance while checks are being carried out. It must report to Japan’s industry ministry by the end of next week on any safety concerns and provide a more extensive account of the problems a fortnight later.
Industry leaders had reached a consensus that Kobe Steel was in a “serious situation”, a senior Japanese manufacturing executive said.
“For a manufacturer, quality control is the most important thing and they were cheating for many years. This was a shock to their customers, who can no longer trust Kobe Steel,” said the executive, speaking on condition of anonymity.
This was the view of Japanese industry leaders, even though no safety issues had so far been identified, he said.
Kobe Steel customers would seek compensation for the cost of replacements and checks, but “I do not think they are leaning toward lawsuits”, he said, adding that as far as he had heard there would be no recalls.
Overseas customers, especially those in the US, presented more of a threat, though, in light of the justice department investigation, he said. “I’d think there will demands for quite a bit of compensation [from companies in the US].”
In Europe, aviation safety authorities advised aircraft manufacturers to avoid using Kobe Steel products until checks were completed.
Some of the data tampering was an abuse of an industry practice known as “tokusai”, a kind of special waiver, which was agreed between buyer and supplier, a Kobe Steel senior executive said on condition of anonymity. Buyers would accept products or materials that did not quite meet the agreed specifications, the executive said. The problems occurred where products were falsely labelled or where the specifications were outside those agreed with the customer but labelled as within specifications, he said.