Hitachi joins Sony battery recall

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Japan's Hitachi Corporation has become the latest firm to recall Sony-made batteries amid safety fears.

Hitachi is recalling about 16,000 laptop battery packs, consisting of Sony-made lithium-ion batteries, installed in laptop computers in Japan.

This follows evidence that, in certain circumstances, the batteries can overheat and catch fire.

Dell and Apple launched massive recalls of Sony batteries in recent months and other firms have followed suit.

'Peace of mind'

Dell recalled 4.2 million batteries while Apple recalled 1.8 million, a move which is likely to cost Sony about $170m.

Toshiba, Lenovo and Fujitsu have also recalled Sony batteries recently.

Hitachi said customers had not reported any problems with the batteries but that it was taking the move "for its customers' peace of mind".

Sony said the batteries can fuse because pieces of metal were left in their cells during the manufacturing process in Japan.

The Dell recall followed six cases of Sony batteries overheating or catching fire.

Nate Elliot, an analyst with business intelligence firm Jupiter Research, said the move was a fresh blow for Sony, which has seen delays in the launch of its highly-anticipated PlayStation 3 console.