Back in September, a major fire broke out at an aluminum plant in New York owned and operated by Novelis, causing extensive damage that will keep it offline until at least Q1 of 2026. This is a huge problem for Ford and some of its rivals, who heavily rely on that plant for aluminum, which is used in the construction of popular models like the Ford F-150 and Ford Super Duty line of pickups, among others. Now, Ford has admitted that it could take a huge financial hit from this incident before things get back to normal.
In its Q3 2025 financial report, Ford revealed that between 2025 and 2026, it expects the Novelis fire to cost it around $1 billion or less, but that's after it offsets that loss with boosted output next year. For 2025, Ford has adjusted its EBIT (earnings before tax and interest) headwind to between $1.5 billion to $2 billion as a result of this incident, and also adjusted its free cash flow headwind to between $2 billion and $3 billion in the fourth quarter due to the Novelis fire.
However, in 2026, Ford believes that it will be able to mitigate at least $1 billion of its Novelis-related adjustments made this year, largely by boosting production of the F-150 and Super Duty, as Ford Authority reported earlier today. The automaker will create up to 1,000 additional jobs to increase F-Series production volume by over 50,000 trucks in total, with that ramp up set to begin in Q1.
“The Ford team, including myself, have been onsite at the Novelis plant in Oswego, New York,” said Ford CEO Jim Farley. “We are working intensively with Novelis and others to source aluminum that can be processed in the cold rolling section of the plant that remains operational while also working to restore overall plant production. We have made substantial progress in a short time to minimize the impact in 2025 and recover production in 2026.”
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