Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries says it has falsified fuel-efficiency data on its ship engines for more than 20 years.
The manufacturer announced that it altered data on 673 of 674 engines. They were mounted on vessels including large cargo ships, container ships and tankers in and after 2000, when regulations on harmful nitrogen oxides were enforced.
The company says it changed data by manipulating testing equipment to keep values within the permissible range decided with customers. It says this could have an impact on nitrogen oxide emissions.
Similar falsifications of ship engine data have recently been reported by subsidiaries of IHI and Hitachi Zosen, prompting the transport ministry to ask makers last month to check their data. Kawasaki Heavy says it discovered the misconduct after an internal investigation.
The company says it will set up a special investigative committee of outside experts to determine the cause of the wrongdoing and consider measures to prevent a recurrence.
Kawasaki Heavy says it apologizes for causing great inconvenience and concern as the misconduct significantly undermined the trust of customers and other stakeholders.