Ford Backed Group Says U.S. Plants Could Shut Down Within Weeks

As Ford Authority reported in April, China has opted to suspend exports of various minerals and rare earth magnets to other countries as its government works to draft a new regulatory system. Trouble is, those materials are needed for electric vehicles and various other components, such as steering systems, headlights, spark plugs, and capacitors, which are used in a wide berth of electronic items, and China controls around 99 percent of the world’s supply of them. This move has already impacted U.S. vehicle production in some ways, but it seems as if things are set to get much worse in just a few weeks.

“Without reliable access to these elements and magnets, automotive suppliers will be unable to produce critical automotive components, including automatic transmissions, throttle bodies, alternators, various motors, sensors, seat belts, speakers, lights, motors, power steering, and cameras,” the Ford-backed lobby group Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI) wrote in a letter to the Trump administration in early May, according to Reuters. “In severe cases, this could include the need for reduced production volumes or even a shutdown of vehicle assembly lines.”

According to AAI CEO John Bozzella, this particular issue was part of discussions between Chinese officials and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Geneva earlier this month, but nothing has been resolved as of yet. Greer did previously note that China agreed to lift the restrictions on its rare earth magnet exports to the U.S., but he added that the country wasn’t moving fast enough. “We haven’t seen the flow of some of those critical minerals as they were supposed to be doing,” he said.

This particular issue already somewhat impacted Ford Explorer production at the Chicago Assembly plant recently, as The Blue Oval paused it last week after one of The Blue Oval’s suppliers rain out of magnets, which are used in that model to operate braking and steering systems, power seats, fuel injectors, and various other components. The plant has since reopened, according to a Ford spokesperson, who added that the automaker had already decided not to keep it running for a week in the coming months regardless of this shortage. The company simply chose to shift that downtime due to the disruption in rare earth magnet supply.