An emerging scandal concerning a major Japanese steel manufacturer is set to have a major impact on automakers. Over the weekend, it was reported that Kobe Steel acknowledged it had fabricated data about the quality of the aluminium and copper it had provided to clients, which included a number of automakers.
It was revealed that inspection certificates of flat-rolled and extruded aluminium as well as copper products – shipped between September last year to August this year – were altered or falsified to match requirements specified by customers, The Nikkei reported. Apparently, dozens of employees were involved in the misconduct.
The company, which supplies materials to a wide variety of industries, including those involved in the manufacture of aircraft, bullet train and cars, did not divulge who its clients were, but said that the issue – which might trace as far back as a decade ago – could involve products sent to as many as 200 companies.
On the automotive front, Japanese automakers said that they were using material from Kobe Steel in their vehicle production and were currently investigating the issue.
Toyota said that Kobe Steel materials have been used in hoods, rear doors and peripheral areas in its vehicles, but added that the issue was limited to its plants in Japan and that factories in other countries weren’t affected. Likewise, Honda said the materials in question had been used in the construction of doors and hoods for its cars.
Subaru said it had vehicles that used the contentious aluminium and was checking whether that use affects safety. This was echoed by Nissan, which said it was looking into the material’s potential impact on vehicle functionality.
Mazda said it also used aluminium produced by Kobe Steel and was in the process of checking which vehicles it was used in, while Mitsubishi stated it was in the midst of confirming affected models.
According to the publication, the country’s transport ministry has called on the carmakers to identify models using any of the affected material and conduct safety checks on these to see if any recalls are necessary.
Jepunis sapoters! Time for defense of ur lords!
I am more worried about planes than cars! Which aircraft manufacturers Kobe steel supply to?
So now we know why toyota cars like milo tin nowadays.
So its not jepunis lords fault at all,… oh wait, IT IS jepunis lords fault!
Hello.. it said only local Japanese cars are affected and not overseas like Malaysia as we source materials from other suppliers… dohhhh don’t be a basher just for the heck of it and especially one so clueless.. pityfool
Meanwhile rebadged Proton inspira, perdana dan Er3 all originated from ??
Inspira & Perdana uses POSCO steel. Meanwhile Er3 uses Sumitomo steel. Ur toyota uses mana steel for its tissue box body?
Do you wonder where POSCO & Prestar acquired its raw material, the answer is China because its cheap and to add something horrible sometime their raw material contaminated with small radioactive, and malaysian company like Lion group is struggling because POSCO & prestar not buy goods from them, in return Lion Group report to Custom to check whether POSCO and Prestar account not hide their abundance profit like when they buy from Lion group when they declare to Custom
Are u one of those who can’t afford to buy Toyota…? Hahaha have u read the whole article, it’s affect all car manufacturer from Japan…
My car steel comes from POSCO, not Kobelco-gate. Enjoy ur milotins.
Looks like we are opening a long long series can of worms
Any idea if vehicle in Malaysia is affected? If yes can i ask for refund?
Bashers said bolehland is full of corruptions, copy pasting thaton almost every articles in PT but when jepunis did they senyap pulak
Topkek
Anyone who cheats and lies or are corrupted should be condemned and not limited to Malaysia. Anyone who thinks that certain countries have the right to cheat customers clearly have some mental issues. What is wrong is wrong, regardless if you’re Malaysian or Japanese or America etc period!
Its donation. Not cheats and lies or are corrupted.
First, Takata, now Kobe Steel. These Japs has lost all honour, disgrace
Takata wasn’t a case of cheating.
Takata is case of lepak, makan sushi and minum sake 10x a day, malu betul
it is…kawtim use low quality product.
EU has CO2 emission test scandal, Japanese has steel scandal & airbags issue. Does Korean car is safe from all these issues?
Will Malaysian Government have the bola to penalise and fine the Japanese car companies in Malaysia if the steel used is tipu?
Don’t forget, engine also got use steel.
Can Proton and Perodua confirm with Malaysians that they don’t get their steel from Kobe Steel?
Proton get their steel supply from POSCO Korea and airbag from autoliv.
Can ur toyota confirm that they don’t get their steel from Kobe Steel? Kobelco-gate?
Ini semua bukan salah Kobe Steel.
Ini semua salah….Oh waii
lol..u try very hard rite kunta?
Will Malaysian Government ask Nissan, Honda, Toyota in Malaysia to check the steel of their cars in Malaysia? After all, even engine also got steel inside beside the body
Now it looks like locally assembled cars which don’t use material from Kobe Steel are safer.
With inferior Kobe Steel, alredi scored 5-star NCAP rating. If good Kobe Steel, Japan cars sure 8-star.
People should be more concerned if they are driving any of the mentioned brands-Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Subaru. Especially made in Japan cars-new and recond.
If follow basher logic, kobe steel better kolos shop
In Malaysia who care about this???
Local manufacturers might sourced from Posco, Nippon Steel, etc..
oh dont worry. P1 and P1 supplies is from Perwaja.
that is more worrisome. If jepun can tipu, abang2 can tipu even more
What about cars that hv already involved in xcdent like mine. Now who to blame n to chk.
Cc nissan
If you can afford, European vehicles are better choices.
nvm about cars.. the material is used by boeing
Yes. a conspiracy to embarrass the Kobe top brass.
Scandals from the Japanese industry as shaken us quite a bit last time takata scandal, now kobe steel, dang whats gonna come next
Its seems like japanese related car scandals kept coming, last year takata had a huge scandal, this year kobe, ayio what is coming next
Is this another Takada airbag scandal in the making?
Well, I couldn’t decide between the Tucson and the new CR-V… Looks like there is no more dilemma… This settles it. Tucson it is…!! :D
No wonder some japs cbu cars also like tin milo
Tak apa-lah….Everything OK here.
Japanese and their “ethics”?
How would owners feel when get cheated on this issue? There will be no recall if the chassis is made from Kobe steel.
It’s another scandal like VW diesel and Takada airbag. Should we get a replacement car from Japaneses car manufacture for this affected model?
inb4 pipu think jepunis really honest
#takata
#kobesteel
previously takata airbag, now steel components. looks like sticking to korean makes more sense. euro ncap 5 stars summore. unlike some god car that has only asean ncap only
Don’t worry, Malaysia will still consider anything from japan is the best, you will still be in one piece in any accident, cheers.
How does the crash test rating on affected cars is calculated then? Does those exported to Europe or outside Japan also affected?
Best if JDM cars drop prices due to possible safety hazards… local grades are still lower grade than Japan steel
Ha ha ha ha. The report says “Kobe Steel scandal”. Many bashers are so HAPPY to bash ANYTHING Japanese. Some did not read the article B4 bashing judging from their comments.
It’s actually about “Aluminium & Copper” it had provided to clients but nothing about steel. That is why I like to read PT.org. We all like Negative News more than Positive news don’t we !! Maybe Oktoberfest will cheer & sober up more M’sian.
Chassis is made up of mixtures of steel, aluminium,copper & etc. Not purely of one material. Chassis affect safety.
U are right, ALMOST. How many percent of aluminium & copper are used in the construction of a car?
Almost 80% of the chassis are made of steel. Almost 15% are made of aluminium but most of the weight goes to engine blocks & wheels.
As for copper, its almost insignificant to say the least. Thanks for sharing.
But that doesn’t make your statement 15% truer though.
If they can falsify for AL & CU, whats stopping them from the same for FE? Still trust ur jepunis lords?
Stop buying Japanese foil cars.
Jepunis tissue cars
Back to the 70s la, kereta jepun macam tin milo
Luckly I’m drive a Volvo….no issue on diesel gate, no problem with the air bags, using boron steel not kobe steel. Nevermine the RV as long never get cheated. Volvo for life….
Luckily I drive CBU conti. Cukur
Watch out for ur takata airbags.
It is time for Geely & other Chinese brand to step up their game & shine then. Conti & Kimchi cars are too expensive.
Some articles mentioned mostly on aluminium and copper products.
Honestly I don’t expect safety problem other than lesser lasting parts. Even with normal steel production, there were tolerance expected with some in tuned to 8-10% or more. If you’re not in steel industry, you might be surprised to hear this. This is those big project or manufacturing ordered by batches so that they can run individual tests to determine the quality of each batch before starting production.
I would say if you have no problem trusting steel made by China, then you’ll have nothing to worry about these cheating by Kobe. If anything, these subpar material from Kobe would still be better than those output by most Chinese manufacturers.
It’s not that I tried to protect them but all I can say is that you can’t judge it from the surface. There are a lot of steel manufacturers out there playing with cheats. Not just Kobe.
Jepunis cars are suck, soft like toilet tissue
Proton didnt use KOBE steel, but still can be milo tin car??? Why oh why???
How much milo tin is 5star ANCAP? Is contis 5star ANCAP oso milo tin?
Nice try but nope, you look like been stucked in caves 20 for years
This is no big deal for Boeing.
Boeing itself falsifies inspections in its factories and throughout its supplier network every minute of every day. They encourage suppliers to skip required inspections and falsify inspection data overtly and otherwise, by always focusing only on cost and schedule requirements for suppliers while not giving a damn about quality and safety requirements, as to corrupt Boeing management, meeting quality and safety requirements only increases costs and endangers timely shipment of supplier components.
This is activity the corrupt management of Boeing fully approves of and ensures the use of all of the time itself in its factories for the same reasons–to reduce costs and improve manufacturing flow, all in service to Boeing management’s only goal–Boeing’s stock price that determines much of their executive compensation.
Us inspectors at Boeing had a name for this management driven practice by Boeing to falsify inspection paperwork stating inspections were done that never were or were only very partially done–“getting the garbage (airplanes/airplane components) out the (factory) door (on schedule).”
Save yourselves and your families. Never fly Boeing. At least 750 people have died in crashes of Boeing planes as a result of this fraud. Don’t let your body and those of your family add to that total.
Of course Boeing has no reason to believe this is a safety concern–they lie and deny safety related issues are safety issues all of the time.
“Boeing has been working closely and continuously with our suppliers since being notified of the issue to ensure timely and appropriate action, including comprehensive inspections and analysis throughout our supply chain,” the company said in an email.
LOL. Boeings Procurement QA is an intentional joke. Boeing doesn’t monitor its suppliers as it is required to do because its goal is never quality or safety compliance from suppliers–only the lowest cost and on schedule delivery. Boeing management has the strong belief that quality and safety requirements only endanger their cost and schedule goals–both internally and at suppliers. Hence, why Kobe and many more Boeing suppliers get away with falsifying data–Boeing allows it to ensure the lowest cost components, damn the quality and safety. There is no management more corrupt in the quality and safety assurance arena than Boeing.
To Boeing’s corrupt legal department, their supplier contract agreements let them out of any responsibility to ensure the quality or safety of supplier components, as suppliers signed that they would meet those requirements. But, in practice, Boeing lets suppliers compromise those requirements as long as the cost and delivery schedule requirements are met.
Boeing’s relentless cost pressure on suppliers ensures that suppliers will omit required inspections and falsify data, and Boeing’s massively deficient (to cut costs, of course) Procurement QA non-oversight of suppliers ensures suppliers can continue this Boeing approved fraud and that Boeing will almost never catch supplier fraud, as they (intentionally) failed to do in this case.