Back in April, China opted to suspend exports of various minerals and rare earth magnets to other countries as that country’s 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. Earlier this month, Ford suppliers were finally granted rare earth export licenses following a bit of a wait, but it seems as if the automaker is still having trouble securing those materials.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Ford is struggling to secure the rare earth magnets that it needs to continue building vehicles, even after the U.S. reached a deal with China to loosen export controls on those materials. “It’s hand to mouth – the normal supply-chain scrambling that you have to do,” said Lisa Drake, Ford’s vice president of Technology Platform Programs and EV Systems. Drake added that the automaker still needs to “move things around” to avoid having production disruptions, but noted that the situation has improved, at least.
The Blue Oval previously paused production of the Ford Explorer at the Chicago Assembly plant back in May after one of its 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. However, Ford noted at the time that it had already decided not to keep the facility running for one week in the coming months regardless of this shortage, and simply chose to shift that downtime due to the disruption in rare earth magnet supply.
Last week, Ford CEO Jim Farley also noted that the company has struggled to deal with a shortage of rare earth magnets. “It’s day-to-day,” he stated. “We have had to shut down factories. It’s hand-to-mouth right now. We’re educating the administration, we’re educating the Chinese leadership about how important these jobs in the Midwest are that are dependent (on rare earth magnets).”
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