Ford Motor Co.’s F-150 plant in Dearborn is down through at least the rest of the week due to a repair needed at a nearby stamping plant, the president of the United Auto Workers local that represents workers at the plant confirmed.
Production stops this evening and will be down for the next few days, said Nick Kottalis, president and chairman of Local 600. Employees could be recalled as early as Sunday, but with Memorial Day on Monday, Kottalis said he expected they likely won’t be returning until Tuesday.
Another source familiar with the situation who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the topic confirmed the plant would be down at least through the end of the week because of the needed repair.
The downtime comes as the Dearborn automaker has sought to boost production of its cash-cow pickup trucks following multiple fires at an aluminum supplier last fall that affected production. That depleted truck inventories on dealer lots and raised concerns for retailers. Sales of F-Series trucks were down almost 16% in 2026 through April.
“We are looking to get this up as soon as possible,” Kottalis said of the latest Dearborn plant shutdown.
Ford has worked with the supplier, Novelis Inc., to source aluminum elsewhere, including from other countries, and added a third crew to Dearborn Truck Assembly and more workers to its truck plant in Kentucky to make up for lost volumes. It hopes to increase F-Series manufacturing by 50,000 of the trucks this year, though stable sourcing from the aluminum hot mill’s ramp-up will take further into the year, Ford executives said later this month.
Ford spokesperson Christina Audisho in a statement said the automaker doesn’t comment on day-to-day operations and declined to add anything regarding how the downtime will affect Ford’s truck production targets.
Kottalis, however, said he thinks the plant will be able to make up production lost over the next few days. The other source additionally suggested if the shutdown isn’t longer than the next few days, then production should be able to be made up. Ford already has canceled the usual summer shutdown at its full-size truck plants to make up for lost production from the Novelis fires.
The plant schedules two 10-hour shifts on weekdays and another shift on weekends, Kottalis said. There also are volunteer shifts on weekends to make up production.
The cause of the downtime is a broken hood die, Kottalis said. This is a large metal mold used in mechanical presses to shape sheet metal into a vehicle’s hood.
The Detroit Free Press first reported the Dearborn Truck downtime.
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Ford suspends F-150 output in Dearborn amid bid to make up lost volume
Reporting by Breana Noble, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
