Japan's Yamada Manufacturing Co Ltd has agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine and plead guilty to a single felony count of fixing the prices of steering columns, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.

The steering columns were sold to Honda Motor Co Ltd, the department said.

Yamada's plea brings to 35 the number of companies which have pleaded guilty in the United States to conspiring to fix the prices of a broad range of auto parts and to pay more than $2.5 billion in fines. A total of 29 executives have either pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty.