Ford Motor Co. expects to rapidly make up a Q3 hit of up to $2 billion as its primary aluminum supplier returns to production sooner than expected.
The automaker on Wednesday announced it will add up to 1,000 jobs – about 900 in Michigan and 100 in Kentucky – to boost production of up to 50,000 of its top-selling F-150 and F-Series Super Duty trucks in early 2026.
The rapid ramp up comes after Novelis, a top supplier of aluminum sheets to the auto industry, confirmed that its hot mill plant in Oswego, New York will resume operations by the end of December, a company spokesperson said in an email to WardsAuto. Novelis said previously that the section of the plant damaged in an October fire would be offline until early 2026.
“This is an acceleration of our previously anticipated timing of Q1CY26,” the spokesperson said. Novelis has worked 24/7 to restore and repair the facility, which allowed the company to accelerate its timing, the spokesperson added.
During its quarterly earnings call with analysts on Wednesday, Ford executives said the decision to boost truck production was influenced by Novelis’ assurances its Oswego hot mill was reopening sooner than expected. The company estimated the impact of the Novelis fire could cost it between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
“It’s in line with our communication with Novelis,” COO Kumar Galhotra said on the call. Ford was informed the hot mill will be operational by late November or early December, he said.
But Galhorta said that the aluminum supply disruption will translate to reduced F-Series truck production of between 90,000 and 100,000 units in Q4. Although Andrew Frick, president of Ford Blue, said while its gross stock of trucks is down 11%, its retail stock levels are projected to end the year with a 55- to 59-day supply.
However, Ford’s short supplies of trucks may not last. Galhotra expects the automaker can make up “roughly 50,000 of those 100,000 units in 2026” as the additional workers join production lines and its aluminum supplies are restored.
Pickup truck sales are important to Ford because its F-Series represented 207,720 of the 545,522 of the vehicles it sold during Q3.
President and CEO Jim Farley credited fast action by company leaders in responding to the Novelis aluminum supply disruption, which contributed to the automaker’s record revenues of $50.5 billion in Q3, a 9% year-over-year improvement.
“We have made substantial progress in a very short timeframe in both reducing the 2025 impact and putting in place an exciting recovery plan for next year,” Farley said.
