Ford will temporarily stop or slow production at six plants across North America as a result of the ongoing global microprocessor chip shortage. The shutdown will affect the production of the brand’s hugely important F-150 pickup truck.
The automaker will be forced to pause production or stop overtime at its plants in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and Ontario, Canada in April as a result of the supply issue.
The shortage has impacted all automakers, but the shutdown at its truck plants will hurt Ford. The automaker relies on sales of the wildly popular pickup truck, which is in the middle of a generational update.
Some F-150s’ fuel economy was already hampered as Ford chose to sell some with missing certian semiconductor chips and production was slowed in February.
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Now, production in Dearborn where F-150s are produced will be paused from April 5 to April 12, according to a statement read by CNBC. Its truck plant in Missouri, which also produces the pickup, will be paused for one week starting on April 5.
Production at its Oakville plant in Canada, meanwhile, will shut down for three weeks. The plant produces the Ford Edge and work will be paused starting on April 12. In Louisville, Kentucky, where Ford produces SUVs, will go down from April 12-19. Overtime at two other plants will be paused.
Ford previously said that it expects the global chip shortage to affect its profits by as much as $1 billion, bringing down its profits from $3.5 billion to $2.5 billion for 2021. The company expects to have a better sense of exactly how this issue will affect it when it reports its Q1 performance in late April.
Researcher IHS Markit estimates that the wider auto industry lost 1.3 million vehicles as a result of chip-related production delays.
