Jiji Press reported that Nisshin Steel Co confirmed that it had shipped 550,000 stainless steel pipes without conducting required nondestructive testing for detecting defects and tests for ability to withstand hydraulic pressure and air pressure.

It said that “Nisshin Steel plant in Amagasaki of the western Japan prefecture of Hyogo failed to carry out the testing, mandatory under Japanese Industrial Standards and fabricated test data for some steel pipes manufactured at the plant in the past five years.”

A Nisshin Steel in house investigation of test data for April 2003 March 2008 found that a total of 480,665 stainless steel pipes were shipped without nondestructive inspections or tests on hydraulic pressure out of 4,311,205 subject to such tests. Tests were also not conducted on 71,756 stainless steel pipes of 2,485,458 subject to air pressure resistance testing.

Nisshin Steel is the third Japanese steelmaker at which testing data fabrication has been revealed, following similar cases late May at JFE Steel Corp and Nippon Steel Corp.