The scandal engulfing Kobe Steel Ltd deepened yesterday as the steelmaker said it may have falsified data about two more products, triggering a further collapse in its shares and intensifying concern that compromised material found its way into cars, trains and aircraft.
After admitting on Sunday that it provided false information about the strength and durability of some aluminum and copper, Japan’s third-largest steel producer said data about iron ore powder and another product might also have been faked.
Shares yesterday plunged 18 percent in Tokyo, with US$1.6 billion wiped off Kobe Steel’s market value since the revelations were made.
Photo: Reuters
As the affair reverberates across markets, it is a further blow to the integrity of Japanese manufacturers after a string of industrial scandals that has destroyed shareholder value, enraged consumers and incurred the wrath of regulators.
Kobe Steel customers from Toyota Motor Corp to Subaru Corp are scrambling to determine if they used the suspect materials and whether safety has been compromised.
If previous instances are examined with “companies initially saying it is a single, one-off, it has always expanded to more and more parts of the business,” said Alexander Robert Medd, managing director at Bucephalus Research Partnership Ltd. “One usually finds out that it is reasonably systematic.”
Kobe Steel’s research institute found data that may have been falsified for an iron powder product and another that is not aluminum or copper, spokesman Tatsuro Kano said by telephone yesterday, declining to identify the latter because investigations are ongoing.
The Yomiuri Shimbun earlier reported iron ore powder was compromised, while a Nikkei Shimbun report said the institute faked testing data on semiconductor material.
The iron ore powder in question had been delivered to one customer, a company spokesman said earlier, adding that Kobe Steel did not see a problem with the safety of the product.
As the scandal mushrooms, Japan’s government has weighed in.
The faked data undermined the basis of fair trade, Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kotaro Nogami said, calling it “inappropriate.”
Kobe Steel chief executive officer Hiroya Kawasaki did not respond to requests yesterday for comment.
One estimate from JPMorgan Securities Japan Co put the potential cost of replacing the copper and aluminum parts at about ¥15 billion (US$133 million), but the damage to the company, which is more than a century old — both in reputational harm or possible legal challenges — might be much greater.
The market impact has already been savage as investors take fright at the possible consequences. While at Friday last week’s close, Kobe Steel had a market value of ¥498 billion, by Tuesday that was down to ¥389 billion, and it fell further to about ¥319 billion yesterday.
Investors have also rushed to unload Kobe Steel’s bonds, causing the extra yield demanded to hold the securities over Japanese government notes to jump.
The premium on the company’s securities maturing in November 2021 rose 148 basis points to about 202.5 on Tuesday, the highest since the firm issued them in late 2011, Bloomberg-compiled data showed.
The cost to insure Kobe Steel’s notes against non-payment has surged.
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