There are many moving parts in the world of automotive production, and when one or more things goes wrong, it can have major disruptions on the entire industry, as we’ve seen on many occasions in the past. Aside from major supply chain issues plaguing the industry in recent years, we’ve also seen the damage that fires can have on the production process, too. Back in 2018, a fire impacted Ford F-Series production in a major way, which occurred at a plant operated by supplier Meridian Lightweight Technologies. Now, F-Series production is facing another very similar problem.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a fire ravaged an aluminum plant owned and operated by Novelis in Oswego, New York recently, which is a huge problem for Ford and some of its rivals. Novelis provides around 40 percent of the U.S. auto industry’s total aluminum sheeting, and much of it comes from that particular plant, which will now remain offline until early 2026 due to extensive damage suffered in the blaze.
For The Blue Oval, this problem is particularly large, given the fact that it’s the biggest user of that facility. Things are so bad, in fact, that Ford may reveal potential implications from the fallout to investors in its quarterly financial reporting set to be released later this month. The Blue Oval does utilize several other aluminum suppliers, though Novelis churns out around 350,000 metric tons of sheet aluminum annually. In addition to Ford, Toyota, Hyundai, Volkswagen, and Stellantis all source aluminum from Novelis, too.
“This represents a serious question for the production of F-150 because that’s the aluminum that comes out of Oswego,” said Kaustubh Chandorkar, an aluminum-industry analyst. “Since the fire nearly three weeks ago, Ford has been working closely with Novelis, and a full team is dedicated to addressing the situation and exploring all possible alternatives to minimize any potential disruptions,” the company said in a statement.
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