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Takata reported its third full-year loss in four years as it grapples with the rising costs of recalling airbags.
The Japanese airbag maker announced a net loss of 13.1 billion yen ($120.5 million) for its financial year ending in March.
Takata has been hit by a huge recall of faulty, potentially deadly, airbags used by car makers worldwide, which may affect more than 100 million vehicles.
The fault has been linked to the loss of 11 lives and more than 100 injuries.
The company has acknowledged some airbag inflators explode with too much force and spray metal shrapnel into the car.
Takata has paid out $70 million in fines so far and the company’s market value has dropped more than 80% since 2014.
Some 50 million vehicles have been recalled globally and last week, US authorities added up to 40 million more.
US regulators believe the volatile chemical used in the inflators, ammonium nitrate, can cause airbags to explode with excessive force.
Globally, 12 car makers are affected with Honda being the worst hit.
Toyota, Honda, Mazda and Ford have said they will stop using Takata airbags containing ammonium nitrate for their future models.
Takata also produces seatbelts, child seats, and other safety-related car parts.
For the current year, the company forecast a net profit of 13 billion yen.
Takata shares ended on May 11 2.5% higher, after losing 11% this week and more than 80% over the year.
GM has told dealers in the US and Canada to stop selling some Chevrolet Cruze cars due to a potential problem with the airbag.
It said the driver’s side airbag in the affected cars may not deploy properly, due to a wrong part being used.
The part was supplied by Japan’s Takata Corp. A defective part from Takata is already the subject of a major global recall by various car manufacturers.
But General Motors said its issue was not related to a defective part.
GM has told dealers in the US and Canada to stop selling some Chevrolet Cruze cars due to a potential problem with the airbag
Jim Cain, spokesman for GM, was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying that the affected Cruze cars “may have been assembled with an incorrect part”.
The recent moves by various car makers to recall million of cars globally were triggered by the use of a defective part rather than a wrong one.
On Monday, Japanese carmakers Honda and Nissan added two million and 755,000 vehicles respectively to the recall they issued last year to replace the defective part.
Toyota, the world’s biggest car maker, recalled an additional 650,000 cars earlier this month to address the issue, taking its total recall tally due to the problem to nearly 2.8 million vehicles.
For GM, the latest move has added to the issues it has faced this year.
The company has recalled more than 17 million cars in the US this year – more than it sold in 2013.
The recalls have been issued due to various problems including faulty ignition switches, possible faulty seat belts, transmissions and air bags, as well as potential fire issues.
In May, GM was fined $35 million for failing to address defects with the ignition switches which have been linked to 13 deaths.
According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Board (NHTSA), it was the single highest civil penalty ever levied as a result of a recall investigation.
GM has also raised its expected second-quarter charge for recall expenses to $700 million, up from $400 million.
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Honda and Nissan have added 2.8 million cars to the recall they issued last year over a defect in passenger airbags.
Honda is recalling two million vehicles and Nissan 755,000 cars globally.
The affected cars have a defective part which “could cause the airbag inflator to rupture and deploy the airbag abnormally in a crash”.
Honda is adding 2 million vehicles to the recall they issued last year over a defect in passenger airbags (photo AP)
The part was supplied by Takata Corp. Other firms, including Toyota, have also issued recalls due to the issue.
Earlier this month, Toyota added 650,000 cars – all in Japan – to its initial recall.
The latest recalls by the three Japanese car makers takes the total number of cars recalled due to the issue to nearly seven million globally.
Honda said its latest recall affects at least 13 models, including the Fit, Stream, CRV and Civic.
Meanwhile, Nissan’s recall affects 16 models globally, including the Cube, Terrano and Sylphy.
Both the firms said that there had been no reports of any accidents or injuries due to the issue.
Earlier this month, Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, said it had received one report of a seat cover burn due to the problem.
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Toyota is recalling about 650,000 vehicles in Japan because of Takata’s potentially defective airbags, the carmaker announced on Wednesday.
The Japanese carmaker said the move will expand a costly recall it announced in 2013 because the supplier, Takata Corp, had not fully identified the problematic parts.
Shares of Takata dropped after the announcement and were down over 4% when the Tokyo market closed.
A Takata spokesman said that more vehicles could be recalled by other manufacturers because of potential airbag inflator defects.
Toyota is recalling about 650,000 vehicles in Japan because of Takata’s potentially defective airbags (photo Reuters)
Carmakers including Toyota, Honda, Nissan Motor Co and BMW in 2013 recalled 3.6 million vehicles in total due to problems with the airbag inflator that could potentially explode and injure the driver or passengers. Those airbags were manufactured by Takata.
Honda and Nissan also said they were investigating whether they needed to recall more vehicles due to this problem.
Toyota said it was expanding the recall it announced in April 2013 that involved 2.14 million vehicles because the serial numbers that Takata had provided for potentially flawed airbag inflators had been incomplete.
In a further step, Toyota said it would instruct its dealers in the US and other overseas markets to begin replacing suspect Takata inflators on all of the vehicles covered by last year’s recall. Previously, the carmaker had asked its dealers to inspect the airbags and only replace those that were judged to be defective.
Toyota said it had been notified of one case in which a defective airbag inflator had caused a seat cover to burn. It said all of the recalled vehicles were equipped with passenger-seat airbags that could be defective and deploy “abnormally” in the event of an accident.
Toyota vehicles covered by the recall include the Corolla and Camry sedans, and Tundra trucks.
Takata has acknowledged to US safety regulators that it improperly stored chemicals and botched the manufacture of the explosive propellants used to inflate airbags.
The company has also said that it kept inadequate quality-control records which made it impossible to identify vehicles with potentially defective airbag inflators a decade or more after they were manufactured at factories in the US and Mexico.
The Takata recall in 2013 was the largest airbag-related recall in history and came after a series of accidents and at least two deaths allegedly caused by faulty airbags.
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Top four Japanese carmakers are recalling 3.4 million cars globally over a defect in passenger airbags.
Toyota, which is recalling 1.73 million cars, said the vehicles had a defective part which “could cause the airbag inflator to rupture and deploy the airbag abnormally in a crash”.
Honda Motors is recalling 1.13 million cars, while 480,000 of Nissan’s and 45,000 Mazda cars are affected.
Top four Japanese carmakers are recalling 3.4 million cars globally over a defect in passenger airbags
The cars were sold between 2000 and 2004.
The firms said the defective part was supplied by parts maker Takata Corp.
Shares in Takata fell 9% to 1,819 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Ryo Sakai, a spokesperson for Toyota, said the firm had received reports of five separate incidents of the airbag inflator being ruptured.
Two of these incidents took place in Japan and three in the US, Ryo Sakai said.
However, he added that there had been no injuries as a result of the incidents.
Meanwhile, Honda, Nissan and Mazda said that there had been no incidents involving their cars.
All four carmakers have said that they will replace the defective parts for free.
“We are conducting a voluntary safety recall to address this issue and replace the front passenger bag inflator,” said a spokesperson for Nissan.
“We plan to notify the customers over the next 30 days,” he added.
