Toshiba to recall 340,000 PC batteries made by Sony

The rechargeable batteries, used in Toshiba Corp's Dynabook series laptops, pose no safety hazard, Keisuke Ohmori, the Tokyo-based company's spokesman, said today. The company will replace problematic cells for free. Ohmori said he didn't have details of the replacement costs. For Sony Corp., the world's second-largest maker of rechargeable batteries after Sanyo Electric Co., this is the third major recall of its batteries in a month. Dell Inc. and Apple Computer Inc. in August recalled six million lithium-ion batteries that were made by Sony because they may overheat and burst into flames. “The problem is caused by insulating paper and there's absolutely no possibility of overheating” in the batteries used in the Toshiba laptops, said Takashi Uehara, a spokesman for Tokyo-based Sony. The company is checking whether similar problems may occur in cells supplied to other PC makers, he said. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which oversees safety regulations for consumer products, last month ordered computer and rechargeable battery makers to investigate their products. Osaka-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the world's largest consumer-electronics maker, on Sept. 5 recalled 6,000 of its batteries used in Panasonic notebook computers on concern they may overheat. Shares of Toshiba fell 0.8% to 786 yen at the 11 a.m. break on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. (Bloomberg)