TAKATA URGES ANOTHER RECALL OF 1.4M US VEHICLES

TAKATA Corporation, the car-parts supplier that went bankrupt after its air bags spurred the largest-ever recall, told US safety regulators that another 1.4 million US vehicles need to be repaired over a potentially deadly defect. Inflator devices Takata supplied to five of the world’s biggest car manufacturers may absorb moisture that could either cause the air bag to rupture or under-inflate, according to a notice published on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) website. The recall involves components produced from 1995 to 1999 and sold to Volkswagen’s Audi, Toyota Motor Corporation, Honda Motor Company, BMW and Mitsubishi Motors. Takata supplied tens of millions of defective air-bag inflators for years that were prone to exploding in a crash and injuring or killing car occupants by spraying metal shards. The Japanese parts maker pleaded guilty as part of a $1 billion settlement with the US Justice Department over its handling of the issue. Past Takata recalls were blamed on its use of ammonium nitrate as a propellant used to inflate air bags. For its latest safety campaign, the company is citing a manufacturing issue that affected inflators that used a non-azide propellant. The parts maker said it produced and sold 4.45 million of them globally during the time period covered by the recall. According to Takata’s safety recall report to the NHTSA, the number of inflators it produced for vehicles sold in the US was “substantially smaller, but is not precisely known at this time.” Because of the age of the potentially affected vehicles, only a portion remain in service. | Bloomberg