Ford Motor is once again cutting production of its highly profitable F-150 pickup truck and two other vehicles next week due to the ongoing global shortage of semiconductor chips.
The automaker on Thursday confirmed its Oakville Assembly Plant in Canada and Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri will be down the week of Aug. 30. Oakville builds the Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus crossovers. Kansas City assembles the F-150.
Ford also will cut two of three shifts next week at its Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan, which produces the F-150.
“Our teams continue making the most of our available semiconductor allocation, finding unique solutions to provide as many high-quality vehicles as possible to our dealers and customers,” the company said in a statement.
The Kansas City plant was already down this week due to the chip shortage.
The parts shortage has caused rolling shutdowns of automotive assembly plants globally throughout this year. Ford has been hit particularly hard by the lack of chips, losing about 50% of its planned production in the second quarter.
The origin of the shortage dates to early last year when Covid caused rolling shutdowns of vehicle assembly plants. As the facilities closed, the wafer and chip suppliers diverted the parts to other sectors such as consumer electronics, which weren’t expected to be as hurt by stay-at-home orders.
The problem is expected to cost the global automotive industry $110 billion in revenue in 2021, according to consulting firm AlixPartners.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Technology Express staff and is published from a syndicated fee)
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