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Takata posts hefty quarterly loss

November 6, 2015

Tokyo-based car parts company Takata has reported a big half-year loss as more carmakers have said they would no longer buy airbags from the company. Shares of the crisis-hit firm continued to plummet.

https://p.dw.com/p/1H1Dy
Takata inflator
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Wolf

Embattled Takata reported a half-year loss of 5.6 billion yean ($45.8 million, 42.1 million euros) on Friday just shortly after Toyota had announced it would stop using Takata airbag inflators at the center of the company's massive product safety scandal.

Takata cut its profit forecast for the full fiscal year by 75 percent, reflecting the expense of recalls for defective airbags affecting millions of vehicles globally.

The company's Tokyo-listed stock plunged again on Friday in a three-day rout, seeing the firm lose nearly 40 percent of its value.

Damage containment

Earlier in the week, US auto safety regulators fined Takata $70 million for concealing evidence for years that its airbags were prone to explode, with grisly consequences. The defect is linked to eight deaths and more than 100 injuries globally.

The Japanese firm had agreed to phase out inflators using ammonium nitrate, the propellant blamed for the explosions.

It also agreed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to a schedule for replacing many of the devices already in use. The replacements will take place over the next two years.

hg/nz (AFP, AP)