While the company has spent a significant amount on recall costs in recent years, it forecast a rebound this year as it has taken steps to move beyond the air bag problems.
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Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was adding up to 40 million air bags to the ongoing recall of 28.8 million air bags made by Takata.
Investigators increasingly suspect that the chemical used to inflate Takata airbags can be unstable, especially in hot and humid conditions, and cause the inflator canister to rupture.
Tokyo-based Honda is the biggest buyer of airbags from Takata, which is struggling to overcome a defect that has been linked to the deaths of 13 people and has led to the global recall of tens of millions of inflators.
The company has booked provisions for all Takata air bag inflators that lack a moisture-absorbing desiccant, Iwamura told Bloomberg.
Honda leaders also reported Friday a quarterly loss due to rising costs over the airbag recall.
Japan’s third-largest automaker by sales said it would recall 21 million more vehicles, on top of the 30 million already recalled, to replace potentially deadly air-bag inflators made by Takata Corp.
For the fiscal year ended March 2016, Honda’s profit plunged 32 per cent to Y344.5 billion as quality-related expenses and the strong yen offset gains from cost cuts and strong performance in the North American market. Since late 2012, a falling yen has buoyed exports and allowed companies to convert profits made overseas at a more advantageous rate.
Honda also said its expects net profit in the current fiscal year to rise 13.2 per cent to 390 billion yen but sales are forecast to fall 5.8 per cent to 13.8 trillion yen. However, the yen has been strengthening, trading at around 109 to the dollar, compared with around 120 in early January. Some vehicles are being recalled many times because cars have many air bags.
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Takata has acknowledged some airbag inflators explode with too much force and spray metal shrapnel into the vehicle.
