Novelis Oswego Fire Hits Ford, Stellantis

A Sept. 16 fire severely damaged the hot mill at Novelis’s Oswego, N.Y., plant; crews are repairing roof, structural and electrical damage and the cause remains under investigation, with Novelis saying the hot mill may resume operations in late November or early December. The outage has cut Ford’s aluminum supply and executives estimate a $1.5 billion–$2 billion hit to 2025 earnings and a Q4 production shortfall of roughly 90,000–100,000 F‑Series units. To recover volume, Ford plans to boost F‑150 and F‑Series production by more than 50,000 trucks in 2026, expects to recover about 50,000 lost units, is pausing F‑150 Lightning assembly, shifting hourly workers from the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center to the Dearborn Truck Plant, and will add up to 1,000 jobs (about 900 in Michigan and 100 in Kentucky) alongside a $60 million investment to raise Kentucky line speeds. Stellantis has temporarily halted Jeep Grand Wagoneer production at its Warren, Michigan, plant because of aluminum parts shortages tied to the Novelis outage. Automakers are reallocating limited domestic aluminum supplies, weighing costly imports and deploying task forces as the disruption highlights industry vulnerability to a single major supplier.