Ford's F-Series Output Remains Under Pressure as Aluminum Supplier Struggles to Fully Resume After Fire

In September last year, a major fire struck Novelis—the primary aluminum supplier for Ford—at its plant in New York, disrupting production of high-margin pickup trucks such as the F-150. Although full production was originally scheduled to resume by the end of December 2024, another fire in late November disrupted the recovery timeline. To date, the plant’s hot-rolling production line has still not fully resumed operations, potentially impacting Ford’s financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. Ford previously estimated that the disruptions could result in a loss of up to 100,000 F-Series pickups and approximately $2 billion in losses, and it plans to offset this shortfall by increasing output by over 50,000 units at other plants. Currently, Ford is sourcing aluminum from other Novelis facilities worldwide, while production of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup has already been halted due to related write-downs. Novelis stated that reconstruction costs are expected to reach $255 million.