The United Auto Workers (UAW) surprised Ford by walking out of the Kentucky Truck Plant – which builds the Ford Super Duty, Ford Expedition, and Lincoln Navigator – roughly a month after it began its targeted strike against the Big Three automakers, which promptly brought production to a halt at it and many other facilities, too. Then, in late October, the two sides reached a tentative agreement that effectively ended the strike, and since then, most all workers have returned to the temporarily closed Blue Oval plants. Regardless, as one would expect, this action had a significant impact on Ford Super Duty production, specifically, in the month of October, according to FoMoCo’s latest sales report.
Back in August, Ford Super Duty production increased significantly month-over-month, 33,592 units, which is 12,713 units or 61 percent more than the 20,879 trucks it built in July. At the Ohio Assembly plant, Ford built an additional 3,048 Super Duty trucks, which is 883 or 41 percent more than July. Then, in September, those numbers declined to 25,429 units in Kentucky, as well as 2,685 units in Ohio as the strike took effect in the middle of the month.
Things really hit the wall in October, as a grand total of 8,572 Ford Super Duty trucks were produced in Kentucky, which is 16,857 units fewer or a 66 percent drop. In Ohio, FoMoCo actually built more Super Duty models last month – 2,968, which is 283 units or 11 percent more than September, but as a whole, Super Duty production declined from 28,114 to 11,540 units, or a 59 percent drop month-over-month.
Now, with the strike over and a tentative agreement thus far being approved at five Ford plants, Super Duty production figures to grow in the coming months. However, as Ford Authority previously reported, The Blue Oval says that the six-week-long strike ultimately shaved around $1.3 billion off of its bottom line.
We’ll have more production numbers to share soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford F-Series news, Ford Super Duty news, and continuous Ford news coverage.
Comments
But why on earth the Escape and Corsair are shut down due to this plant closure is causing TONS of negative comments elsewhere. I don’t understand why the E/C plant needs to be reliant on a truck plant, either. More stupidity…
Don’t believe I would consider purchase of one built in October.
Between my salary and that of my wife, we earn over $200k a year. When I consider buying a new truck, all I’ve got to do is look at Fords prices and I think my current truck runs just fine. There’s no way in hell I’d pay $115,000 for a rapidly depreciating asset like a vehicle. In four years these trucks won’t be worth half of the MSRP + dealer markup being asked today. The Big Three need to pull their heads out of their third point of contact or they will go bankrupt… except this time the tax payers will NOT bail you out.
You say that like we’d have a choice. We haven’t really gotten to decide where our taxes go for a long time.