The Ford F-series was the best-selling pickup truck in the USA for the forty fourth consecutive 12 months in 2025, however for months, the corporate had been asking the federal government for assist with a expensive problem, solely to be repeatedly rebuffed, in accordance with a brand new report.
President Donald Trump and his administration have denied repeated requests from Ford and different U.S. automakers for reduction from aluminum tariffs, in accordance with the Wall Avenue Journal.
Stock ranges for the F-150 have been falling as a consequence of fallout from the September hearth on the Novelis plant in Oswego, New York.
Whereas Novelis provides business gamers equivalent to Coca-Cola, AB InBev, and Samsung with aluminum, the auto business, together with Ford, Jaguar LandRover, and Stellantis, can also be extraordinarily reliant on the corporate.
The blaze on the Oswego plant wasn’t your run-of-the-mill hearth.
It took about 175 firefighters from 26 completely different space hearth departments to extinguish the September blaze. Novelis mentioned it will take months to return to full manufacturing, however on Nov. 20, a second hearth broke out.
On the time, Ford mentioned it was pivoting to different aluminum suppliers; nonetheless, it additionally estimated that it will lose between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in EBIT within the fourth quarter as a result of disruption.
President Trump places extra stress on Ford after doubling aluminum tariffs
Whereas President Donald Trump introduced the primary batch of aluminum tariffs over a 12 months in the past, on Monday, April 6, the federal government formally elevated them to an advert valorem price of fifty% for items made nearly fully of aluminum, metal, or copper. This consists of coils and aluminum sheets, like those carmakers use for the our bodies of their automobiles.
Each auto business execs and the White Home have mentioned they have been in fixed contact since earlier than the primary batch of auto tariffs went into impact, however the newest makes an attempt to melt their tariff burdens have fallen on deaf ears, in accordance with the Journal.
Associated: Ford F-150 customers might need to wait to purchase
“In recent weeks, Ford has petitioned the Trump administration for assistance, asking officials for relief from the duties at least until Novelis’ Oswego plant returns to full service,” the Journal reported, citing “people with knowledge of the conversations.”
Ford beforehand mentioned it does not anticipate to return the mill at Novelis to operations till “somewhere in the middle of the year, the range between May and September.” It didn’t instantly return a request for remark for this story.
Based on the report, the “administration hasn’t budged,” leaving Ford in a billion-dollar gap from which it may’t escape. Trump officers say the administration has already given the automotive business a break by permitting corporations to recoup a few of what they paid on automotive components topic to the 25% tariff.
Ford estimated it will lose between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in EBIT within the fourth quarter as a consequence of fires on the Novelis plant in Oswego, New York.
Moneymaker/Getty Photographs
Ford F-150 costs might stay elevated till summer season 2026
The Novelis hearth value Ford round 100,000 F-Sequence items final 12 months, Sherry Home, Ford’s chief monetary officer, mentioned within the firm’s final earnings name.
Final 12 months, Ford CEO Jim Farley visited the Novelis website following the September 16 hearth that introduced down a part of the manufacturing facility’s roof.
“We immediately mobilized a dedicated crisis team, worked around the clock with Novelis to secure alternative aluminum sources for our operational lines and accelerate a plant’s recovery,” Farley mentioned.
Regardless of the fast pivot, Ford anticipated an EBIT headwind between $1.5 billion and $2 billion within the fourth quarter, with a money headwind of $1 billion or much less between this 12 months and subsequent.
However he made these estimates earlier than the second hearth broke out on the plant on Nov. 20. A hearth began within the part of the plant with the rolling mill, the place heated aluminum slabs are flattened into lengthy, skinny sheets earlier than they’re processed additional in a distinct space.
Ford expects to have the mill at Novelis again operational “somewhere in the middle of the year, the range between May and September.”
Ford is the plant’s greatest buyer. In 2015, Ford determined to switch the metal our bodies of its massive vans and SUVs with aluminum to cut back weight and enhance gas financial system.
Throughout the corporate, Ford reported a 16% lower in its fourth-quarter stock, leading to a 66-day gross provide. The corporate says it expects F-150 stock to be decrease within the first half of the 12 months, and the analysts at Cox Automotive are additionally seeing indicators of this shift.
“Our data does suggest, generally, that F-150 inventory is tighter now than in recent memory. Simply looking at the first three quarters of 2025 (Jan. to Sept.), F-150 inventory was typically in the 115K unit neighborhood — that was the estimated total available F-150s on dealer lots across the U.S.,” Cox Automotive’s Mark Schirmer instructed TheStreet.
That quantity has dropped about 22% to 90K because the fourth quarter.
So what does this imply for the patron?
“I suspect buyers will see some upward price pressure there,” Schirmer mentioned. “As our former chief economist Jonathan Smoke was constantly telling us, ‘Stock is the clearest sign of the place pricing is headed, as a result of provide situations finally decide pricing energy.'”
Associated: GM makes drastic determination pickup lovers will get pleasure from
