Chery to recall vehicles in S. America, Singapore

China's largest domestic automaker Chery said on Wednesday that it would recall 18,875 vehicles sold in Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina and Singapore due to a problem with asbestos.

Chery's spokesperson Jin Gebo said the recalled models are the Tiggo and the A3. Gaskets and exhaust systems installed in the vehicles contained small amounts of asbestos, a carcinogen banned from those auto markets.

Chery recalled 2,445 cars in Australia starting on Aug 15, after Australian authorities detected asbestos in the two models' parts.

Experts say that the asbestos does not pose a risk to drivers or passengers of the vehicles, but might harm car mechanics. In developed countries, auto parts containing asbestos have been banned for a long time.

Chery established an operational standard to replace the auto parts after the recall in Australia, to make sure that mechanics at overseas after-sales service points would not be affected, Jin told Xinhua.