The Novelis aluminum plant in New York caught fire on September 16, which could impact Ford for several months thanks to the plant shutdown unitl 2026.
A major fire hit Novelis’ aluminum plant in upstate New York; the same facility that supplies Ford with truck body panels. Production’s halted, timelines are unclear, and Ford’s F-150 line could feel it soon. Here’s what happened, why it matters, and what Ford’s doing to keep trucks rolling off the line.
Production disruption; another blow to Ford
The aluminum supplied by Novelis, located in Oswego, New York, is extremely important to Ford, and this fire could cause serious delays in Ford’s aluminum supply chain. The F-150 uses aluminum body panels, and this fire could be a serious production disruption that will hurt the company for several months. The F-150 is the most popular truck in America, and the most popular vehicle overall, which means Ford needs to build many of them every year. This fire will cause Ford F-150 delays that can’t be quickly overcome because it causes a disruption to truck production, creating automotive supply problems that nobody could have seen coming.
How devastating was the fire?
This fire that broke out at the Novelis Ford supplier in Oswego, New York, will be a long-lasting fire, with an impact that will be felt for months or even a full year. It severely damaged the hot mill, which left the company scrambling to contain the damage. This plant supplies aluminum sheets to Ford, General Motors, Toyota, and Sellantis, but the Ford F-150 aluminum body uses the most aluminum. This fire will cause serious aluminum shortages in the automotive industry that will last for the remainder of 2025 and into 2026. In fact, Novelis has already announced it won’t reopen until the early part of 2026.
Plant workers were lucky
The Novelis plant fire has a greater impact than just slowing Ford production and causing an automotive aluminum shortage. Thankfully, this fire did not cause any loss of life or injuries. It broke out around 10:00 pm and was mainly contained by 2:00 am the next morning, and nobody was hurt. This allows Novelis to focus on reopening the plant and finding ways to avoid disruption to the auto industry supply chain, of which they are a major part. The fire already had a serious impact on Ford production and stock prices, as the Ford stock dropped 6% the morning after the fire broke out.
A blow Ford didn’t need
No automaker needs their supply chain to be disrupted, as COVID-19 proved to the world with semiconductor chip issues. This Ford supplier fire is a major piece of automotive manufacturing news and will cause a serious disruption in aluminum production for Ford truck manufacturing. Ford already dealt with a problem that has nothing to do with truck manufacturing issues during the second quarter of the year, when tariffs unnecessarily imposed by the current presidential administration wiped out the company’s profits for the quarter. This fire could cost Ford as much as $1 billion in revenue lost due to the production disruption.
The global network activated
To combat what could be a serious supply chain shortage, Novelis has begun to work with its global network of plants to source materials to avoid a much larger gap in the supply chain. Despite these efforts, it takes time to get things moving from other locations. The Novelis plant which caught fire, is ideally located to have a positive impact on Ford production of its F-150 trucks across the Midwest. Still, if Novelis can help alleviate some of this disruption, it could help bring the F-150 back online before the current supply of trucks at dealers dwindles to a shortage.
Will this fire impact other automakers?
Although other major automakers are customers, Ford uses more aluminum from Novelis than any other automaker. General Motors and Toyota don’t expect this fire to impact their operations nearly as significantly as Ford. In fact, Toyota said it could meet its aluminum needs through other suppliers, which shows the diversification of the supply chain for the brand, which might not be a bad idea for Ford to explore in the future.
Foreign aluminum is a bad option
Although it might be the only option for Ford, thanks to the Novelis plant fire, buying aluminum from foreign manufacturers could seriously impact Ford’s bottom line. Currently, imported aluminum faces a 50% tariff, which would cause F-150 trucks to increase in price because of the large amount of aluminum used. This fire has really put Ford in a bad spot for the rest of the year.
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