Matsushita Electric Industrial, the company behind electronics giant Panasonic, is offering free replacement batteries to 6,000 owners of its Let's Note CF-W4G laptops after becoming the latest vendor to reveal fears about overheating.

The company said that there was a risk that 6,000 laptops manufactured during April and May last year could overheat if the machines were dropped or received a heavy knock, causing a latch on the battery case to break and fall into the case alongside the lithium-ion battery.

A spokesperson for the company said that the affected products had not been available in Europe and were only ever sold in Japan.

However, in a statement seen by IT Week the company admitted some customers may have bought a laptop in Japan and moved it overseas. The statement added that Panasonic was preparing information for these customers, including how they could get their replacement battery.

Panasonic insisted the problem was completely unrelated to recent concerns about overheating Sony batteries, which last month prompted Dell and Apple to recall 4.1 million and 1.8 million batteries respectively.

But despite the different nature of the Panasonic flaw the latest development is likely to raise concerns among some customers that further recalls from major suppliers could follow. It is also likely to increase pressure on IT directors to ensure they are adequately recording and managing serial numbers on their IT assets so that they can respond quickly to any future recalls.