Studying possible impact of Kobe Steel issue in India: Toyota

NEW DELHI: Japanese auto major Toyota today said it is studying the possible impact in India with regard to supplies by Kobe Steel which is mired in a controversy over falsification of data on the quality of its products.

Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Ford are major automobile companies to which Kobe Steel had supplied its products.

Ford said its models in India are not affected by the issue.

"Putting utmost priority on the safety of our customers, we are rapidly working to identify which vehicle models might be subject to this situation and what components were used, as well as what effect there might be on individual vehicles," a Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) spokesperson told PTI.

At the same time, the company is also considering what measures need to be put in place going forward, the spokesperson added.

When contacted, a Ford India spokesperson said: "We don't have any exposure to Kobe Steel across our product portfolio in India."

Queries sent to Nissan Motor India and Honda Cars remained unanswered.

Japan's Kobe Steel has admitted that it sold products that failed quality control tests to about 500 companies. It falsified data to pass the failed products.

The impacted companies globally were from across various industrial sectors including aviation, electronics, automobiles and bullet trains.