U.S. safety agency cites shortages of replacement air bag parts

NEW YORK/DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. automotive safety officials said some replacement parts for millions of potentially defective air bags may not be available until February, and they scheduled a meeting Thursday with Takata Corp <7312.T>, the Japanese parts supplier.

In documents released on Wednesday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Takata would supply up to 4.3 million replacement parts as part of a regional recall announced in June in certain southern U.S. states and Puerto Rico.

Inflators in the Takata air bags have been prone to rupture, spraying metal fragments into vehicle occupants. Such incidents have been linked to at least four deaths and dozens of injuries in the United States, triggering the recall of more than 10 million vehicles since 2008 by 10 different manufacturers.

The NHTSA documents released Wednesday revealed the agency has met several times over the past three months with Takata and the manufacturers. NHTSA also briefed U.S. lawmakers earlier this week.

In a letter to Takata Senior Vice President Kazuo Higuchi, NHTSA Deputy Director David Friedman demanded that Takata provide the agency with updated estimates of its ability to produce replacement parts and called on the Japanese firm to provide details about a program to test inflators "as soon as possible."

(Reporting By Patrick Rucker in Washington, Christian Plumb in New York and Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Chris Reese)