Cars and Drivers

Ford Restarts F-150 Production

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: May 16, 2018 4:33 pm

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 11:30 pm

After a fire took a supplier of parts for Ford’s (NYSE: F) F-150 offline and worried investors that the company’s No.1 selling vehicle by far would face falling inventories, the company announced that production is coming back online

The company’s comment:

Ford Motor Company is restarting production of the popular F-150 at Dearborn Truck Plant Friday after just over one week of downtime. The company has also successfully repaired the supply chain for Super Duty, with production targeted to restart by Monday at the Kentucky Truck Plant as well as the Kansas City Assembly Plant that also makes F-150 pickups.

This follows the massive May 2 fire at the Meridian Magnesium Products facility in Eaton Rapids, Mich.

“While the situation remains extremely dynamic, our teams are focused on returning our plants to full production as fast as possible,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president, Global Operations. “The ramp-up time to full production is improving every day.”

And, most importantly:

Inventories of Ford’s best-selling F-Series pickups and other vehicles remain strong and customers won’t have a problem finding the model they want.

The F-Series accounts for almost 40% of Ford’s unit sales in the U.S. and has been the top selling vehicle in America for decades. The full-sized pick-up market is highly competitive. GM’s (NYSE: GM) Chevy Silverado is the second best selling vehicle in the U.S. Fiat Chrysler’s (NYSE: FCAU) Ram is often in third place.

Investors have already been worried that Ford is behind the curve in cost management and new age technologies which include autonomously controlled vehicles. Ford said it would eliminate all but two car models in the U.S. where sales of sedans have been falling across the entire industry as crossover, SUV, and pick-up sales boom.

At least Ford shareholder will have one less thing to worry about