Global automakers may face another potentially huge air-bag recall as the U.S. transport regulator evaluates the long-term safety of inflators made by bankrupt supplier Takata Corp., Bloomberg News reported. The manufacturer, now owned by China’s Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp., faces a Dec. 31 deadline to show the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that as many as 100 million inflators containing a chemical drying agent will be safe long-term. Those would be on top of the previous round of recalls, which started in 2008 and is linked to at least 23 deaths worldwide and more than 200 injuries in the U.S. alone. Takata had sold defective air bag inflators using ammonium nitrate, which were at risk of exploding violently in a crash and injuring passengers with metal shards. The Japanese parts maker pleaded guilty to a wire-fraud charge as part of a $1 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over the air-bag problems, and later went out of business.
