Ford's production of highly profitable Super Duty trucks hits 20-year high as it recovers from supplier fires

In this article F DETROIT — Ford Motor is increasing production of its crucial F-Series trucks after fires at an aluminum supplier severely impacted output over the past year.

The automaker confirmed Wednesday to CNBC that production of its large, highly profitable "Super Duty" trucks last month hit a 20-year high, while output of F-150 pickups reached their highest level in two years.

Ford's F-Series trucks — which include the F-150 and larger "Super Duty" models such as F-250, F-350 and F-450 — were severely impacted by the supplier issues due to their large aluminum bodies and other components. The Detroit automaker has spent the past year helping aluminum supplier Novelis get the impacted plant in Oswego, New York, back up and running following fires in September and November of last year.

The increases in production mean an influx of pickups are expected to arrive on dealership lots over the coming weeks and months, according to Rob Kaffl, Ford's head of U.S. sales. "We're increasing production. Dealers will start seeing in the next 30, 60, 90 days that ramp-up in production," Kaffl said Wednesday. "We have a healthy chain of in-transit and in-system."

Ford said Super Duty production was more than 39,000 units in August, for its best month since March 2006, while F-150 production was its highest since August 2024. The Ford Pro business is led by sales of the automaker's Super Duty trucks that range from the F-150 to commercial trucks and chassis cabs.

The increase in the supply of pickup trucks comes as Ford experienced its eighth consecutive month of year-over-year U.S. new vehicle sales declines in August. The automaker reported Wednesday that sales were down 10.3% for the month compared with a year earlier. "Our gross availability of products coming in, I would say, is returning back to normalcy – the normal levels our dealers would have," Kaffl said.

Ford said Wednesday F-Series sales remain off 10.9% through August compared with a year earlier, including a 1.2% decrease last month. Ford dealers currently have a roughly 40 days' supply of pickup trucks, which is about half of what the industry has typically considered a healthy level for those vehicles.

Kaffl reiterated that Ford is targeting a days' supply of the trucks of between 50 days and 60 days, compared with historical industry levels of 75 to 90 days. "We're being very intentional to make sure the production is meeting the demand," he said. To meet that pent-up demand, Ford has been increasing manufacturing to higher levels than it had last year in an attempt to make up lost production.

The Novelis issues are expected to cost the automaker $1.5 billion this year. In addition to the pickup truck issues, Ford said its sales have been impacted by the discontinuation of two vehicles earlier this year that makes comparisons harder to meet as well as planned lower sales to daily rental fleets.

Ford also said Labor Day — which is historically a major sales weekend — was a touch comparison since it falls in September this year compared with August of last year. The automaker noted that despite the year-over-year sales drops, its U.S. retail market share, which excludes sales to fleet customers, has remained relatively level this year at 11.7% in August.

U.S. automakers overall are experiencing slowing sales, with Ford estimating an industrywide decline of 6% in new vehicle sales.