Ford Suspends Production of Flagship F-150 Pickup, Gives Competition Daylight

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 11:51PM EST · Published May 9, 8:50PM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Ford Suspends Production of Flagship F-150 Pickup, Gives Competition Daylight — © Ford Motor Co.

The F-150 pickup is Ford Motor Co.’s (NYSE: F) top-selling vehicle and accounts for over a third of Ford’s unit sales in the United States. It has also been the best-selling vehicle in America by far for decades.

Ford said it needs to suspend production at more than one facility because of supply chain problems. It is one of the rare chances competition will have to try to take market share in the full-size pickup segment.

The company released a statement that said in part:

Ford Motor Company said it is working to mitigate U.S. production losses after a May 2 fire at a parts supplier

Parts shortages resulting from the fire at Meridian Magnesium Products of America’s plant supply issue is currently impacting F-150 and Super Duty production at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly, Dearborn Truck and Kentucky Truck plants

[nativounit]
Also:

Current impacts from the supply shortage, included:

F-150 production is suspended at Kansas City (Mo.) Assembly Plant and will also be suspended at the Dearborn (Mich) Truck Plant at the end of the afternoon shift tonight
Ford F-Series Super Duty production is down at Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville. Ford expects Super Duty production to continue at Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake

Ford said its annual guidance of adjusted earnings per share between $1.45 and $1.75 would still hold. However, “the production shortage is expected to have an adverse impact on the company’s near term results.”

In other words, Ford cannot accurately predict the shortfall’s effect.

In the first four months of the year, Ford sold 287,295 F-Series pickups, up 4.1%. Ford’s entire sales for the period were 804,232, down 3.3%.

[recirclink id=395395]

The full-sized pickup segment of the car industry is viciously competitive. Ford’s lead over the number two Chevy Silverado, owned by General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and number three Dodge Ram, owned by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) may be the single most important edge Ford has in the American market. Management of the two brands will rush to do whatever they can to take advantage of the F-150 production interruption.

[wallst_email_signup]

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.