By Nora Eckert
DETROIT, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Production of Ford Motor’s best-selling F-150 pickup truck has been halted for nearly a week at a Detroit-area plant, according to a memo viewed by Reuters.
All production crews at Dearborn Truck Plant were canceled starting Thursday, through Tuesday, September 29, the memo said. A person familiar with the matter said the outage was because of a supply problem.
Production of F-Series trucks at other plants was also affected. Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant canceled some shifts this week due to the same issue impacting Dearborn, a person familiar with the matter said. Kentucky Truck Plant near Louisville increased truck production, the person said.
Ford is battling to regain lost output of the trucks after a fire at an aluminum supplier cost it tens of thousands of vehicles of production starting late last year. The automaker’s vehicle sales were down about 10% year-over-year through August, with sales of the F-Series down 11%.
The supplier problem that caused the latest disruption was unrelated to the aluminum shortage, the person familiar with the matter said. Reuters was unable to determine the supplier issue at the center of the changes.
Losing even a single day of production is extremely expensive for the automaker, especially for the F-Series, America’s best-selling vehicle for 44 years.
General Motors and Ford are projected to have lost more market share in the United States through the first three quarters than any other automakers this year, according to Cox Automotive.
Hyundai and Kia sales combined are expected to surpass Ford in the third quarter, for the first time, Cox said.
(Reporting by Nora Eckert in Detroit; Editing by Mike Colias and Mark Porter)
