Ford restarts F-150 production at Dearborn after supplier halt

Dearborn restarts

Ford had planned to keep Dearborn down through 30 September, Mark DePaoli, UAW Region 1A director, told the Detroit Free Press. DePaoli said the line restarted on the morning of 29 September, and a Ford spokesman confirmed it. Reuters, citing an internal memo, had reported crews cancelled through 29 September.

The F-150 is central to Ford's US business, so cancelled shifts cost it pickups. Ford has said it is too early to determine how many trucks it will lose or whether delivery timelines at dealerships will change. The company has not named the missing part or the supplier. DePaoli said Ford timed part of the downtime for facility repairs as well as the supplier issue. About 3,500 to 4,000 workers at Dearborn were told to stay home, he said.

Kansas City's cancelled shifts

F-150 output at Kansas City Assembly in Claycomo, Missouri, was down on Friday, the Detroit Free Press reported on 25 September. It has since resumed, Jim Fisher, bargaining chair of UAW Local 249, said on 29 September.

Ford cancelled 15 F-150 shifts at Kansas City between 1 September and 25 September, Fisher said. He said output there has been spotty all month. The plant employs about 8,600 people; roughly half build the F-150 and the rest build the Transit van, which kept running. Fisher said Ford cited a "lack of parts" and that he thought aluminum was responsible. Reuters reported a different cause: a person familiar with the matter said the problem is separate from the aluminum shortage, and the agency could not identify the supplier. Ford spokesman Dave Tovar told the Detroit Free Press: "We don't comment on supplier disruptions."

A weak quarter to absorb it

F-Series US sales were down 11 percent year over year through August, steeper than the roughly 10 percent decline in Ford's overall US vehicle sales over the same period, Reuters reported.

Fisher said Ford had intended to build about 67,200 model year 2026 F-150s through the end of the year. The F-Series has been America's best-selling truck for 49 years, and Ford sold 828,832 of them last year. Analysts predict a dismal third quarter for the Detroit Three, saying they will lose the most US market share in recent history and that Hyundai will outsell Ford, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Still recovering from Novelis

Two fires at aluminum supplier Novelis late last year created a shortage of the metal Ford uses in F-150 bodies.

Those fires deprived Ford of tens of thousands of vehicles. Ford leaders have said the company was on course to make up the lost output by year-end. Novelis restarted the hot mill at its Oswego plant in June and said it was working with customers to ramp up supply. The Kentucky Truck Plant, which builds Super Duty pickups rather than the F-150, reportedly increased production in a possible effort to offset the impact. Yahoo Finance commentary noted that extra assembly lines do not help when the missing item is a single component from a single supplier.

What happens next

Fisher said Ford had parts to keep Kansas City running through 30 September and would manage supplies day by day after that. Ford reports third-quarter US sales on 2 October.