Taiwan retailer says it did not import defective power banks

Taipei, June 22 (CNA) Taiwanese tech retailer Chicony has confirmed that it did not import power bank models from Anker Innovations Co., Ltd. that were voluntarily recalled by the Chinese manufacturer due to fire hazard concerns.

Chicony, one of Anker's two agents in Taiwan, made the confirmation Saturday night, explaining that it did not import any of the seven recalled power bank models.

However, Anker's other Taiwan agent, Weblink, has not made any statements regarding whether or not the company had introduced the devices to Taiwan's market at press time.

On Friday, Anker issued a notice on its main website in China to recall batches of power banks from the A1642, A1647, A1652, A1680, A1681, A1689 and A1257 series.

The recall will see the company take back a total of 712,964 units from all of its global markets, as its power banks have recently been at the center of fire hazards and accidents.

According to a notice released by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on June 12, the commission requested the recall of 1.158 million power banks from Anker's A1263 series.

The CPSC urged consumers to stop using the products immediately due to the high risk of combustion and burns.

The CPSC notice indicated that Anker had received 19 reports from consumers of the company's power banks causing fires or explosions.

Of the incidents, two resulted in minor injuries that didn't need any medical attention at hospitals while 11 were cases of property damage totaling US$60,000.

In its notice on Friday, Anker offered customers three recall options: a full refund, a free upgrade to a newer model, or a shopping voucher equal to the original purchase price plus an additional 50 Chinese yuan.

Anker said that the recall decision was made after its safety inspections found that one of its suppliers had changed the materials used to manufacture the company's battery cells without first obtaining approval from Anker.

The substitution of the materials could lead to the separator insulators in a limited number of its products losing their effectiveness and causing a device to overheat, resulting in safety concerns, according to the company.

Anker's power bank failures marks the second time a Chinese brand has suffered defective issues in recent months.

Romoss, a Shenzhen, China-based charging solution provider, also issued a recall of 491,745 units from three of its power bank models on April 14, after the brand was found to have caused fire hazards across China.

Aside from prompting China's netizens to post videos of Romoss power banks catching fire, one of the company's devices also caused an incident midair on March 20 during a flight between China and Hong Kong when it caught fire.