Supplier Series – The Filthy Gears of NGK Automotive Ceramics USA

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You know that sinking feeling when you peel back the shiny wrapper on something “green” and find the guts reek of greed? Welcome to NGK Automotive Ceramics USA – the US offshoot of Japan’s NGK Insulators, selling itself as a clean-tech saviour while rigging prices, grinding workers, and serving Cummins like a loyal lapdog.

They’re the folks behind the ceramic guts in catalytic converters and diesel filters – all the buzzwords about “emissions control” and “carbon neutrality by 2050”. Sounds righteous. It isn’t. Behind the PR glaze sits a cartel veteran with a filthy track record.

The Price-Fixing Cartel – How to Pollute a Market

From 2003 to 2010, NGK Automotive Ceramics and its parent ran with the big boys – Corning, Ibiden, and the rest – in a global price-fixing racket. Secret meetings, cooked bids, inflated invoices. The works.

The US Department of Justice came knocking in 2011. By 2015, NGK had coughed up a $65.3 million criminal fine for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act, plus obstruction charges for trying to hide evidence. A cartel peddling “clean” tech while dirtying the market – the irony writes itself.

Civil suits followed. In 2020, NGK and its pals paid $17.3 million to direct purchasers for decades of overcharging. Even California’s Attorney General was still chasing them in 2021, claiming the cartel had cost taxpayers millions through rigged emissions components.

The punishment? Fines that barely dented the profits. The lesson? Crime pays if your PR team can spell “sustainability”.

Sweat, Heat and HR Hell

If the boardroom greed doesn’t get you, the factory will. Reviews from NGK’s US plants describe sweltering 99°F conditions, forced overtime, and a “combative, uncaring” management culture. Promotions handed to favourites. Temps blamed and binned. HR called “disrespectful, rude and retaliatory”.

Globally, the company logged 28 human rights complaints in FY2022. Their solution? “Internal investigations”.

The result? Nothing changes. NGK still trades on its “people-first” marketing while workers are pushed to exhaustion inside its Mooresville and Detroit sites. Wellness schemes and corporate values posters don’t mean much when the aircon’s broken and you’re told to keep producing.

Cummins’ Ceramics Partner – The Filth Circles Back

In 2014, Cummins publicly named NGK Automotive Ceramics USA among its top US suppliers. The pair share a bond forged in emissions tech – NGK’s ceramics feed directly into Cummins’ diesel aftertreatment systems.

Which means the same company busted for price-fixing emissions hardware has helped Cummins build its “clean diesel” story. That’s accountability for you: a cartel convict celebrated by a company already drowning in its own emissions scandal.

NGK isn’t just a supplier; it’s another cog in Cummins’ self-sustaining hypocrisy loop – profit from pollution, pledge neutrality, repeat.

The Bottom Line

NGK Automotive Ceramics USA is a masterclass in corporate doublespeak – a company fined for manipulating prices on clean-air tech, accused of abusing workers, and still proudly polishing its ESG halo.

Its presence in Cummins’ supply chain tells you everything about that ecosystem: if there’s a dollar to be made, ethics can wait.

Ceramic filters might scrub exhausts, but there’s no filter for corporate rot.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

Sources

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