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 On Thursday, Takata's senior vice president for global quality
assurance, Hiroshi Shimizu, told a U.S. Senate panel the company may
not be able to keep up with demand for replacement parts.
About 16 million cars with Takata air bags have been recalled
worldwide, with more than 10 million of those in the United States.
Shimizu said that even if the company ramps up production of
replacement kits beyond the current pace of 300,000 a month, it may
still not have enough parts. "Even if we increase to 450,000, maybe
still that's not speedy enough," he said.
David Friedman, deputy administrator of the U.S. National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), told the Senate committee his
agency is in touch with two other suppliers to determine whether
they are able to make replacement parts.
Friedman agreed with comments made by a senator on the panel that at
a rate of 450,000 replacement parts per month, it would take two
years to fix all of the possibly defective air bags in U.S. cars
that have been recalled.
Friedman told senators that it is not easy for a supplier other than
Takata to make air bags that would fit into recalled cars and ensure
they are safe.
"We are in contact with two different air bag suppliers," Friedman
said on Thursday. "We are asking them what their capacity is, what
their compatibility is. There may need to be tests involved to
ensure, because each air bag is tuned for each car, that they will
be safe."
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If the Takata recalls are expanded, as some senators said they want,
even more help from outside Takata would be needed, said Scott
Upham, analyst at Valient Automotive Market Research.
"A nationwide recall of both Takata driver and passenger inflators
would affect over 18 million vehicles globally and require over 36
million inflator replacement kits," Upham said on Thursday.
He added Takata competitors TRW Automotive <TRW.N>, Autoliv Inc
<ALV.N> and Daicel Corp <4202.T> would be required to help make all
those kits by the end of 2015.
(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Peter Galloway)
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