DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday announced more downtime at a number of key assembly plants, including two more weeks for the F-150 pickup -- the top-selling vehicle in the U.S. -- due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage.
In a memo to employees obtained by Automotive News and confirmed with the company, Ford said the Chicago and Flat Rock, Mich., plants as well as both the F-150 and Transit van sides of its Kansas City, Mo., plant will be down the weeks of April 19 and 26. Production at its plant in Avon Lake, Ohio, will be limited to Super Duty chassis cabs and medium-duty trucks those weeks.
The downtime is in addition to what the company announced last week.
Additionally, Ford said its Kentucky Truck plant in Louisville will be down the weeks of April 26 and May 3 and will remove overtime from May 8 to 31.
Industry research firm AutoForecast Solutions estimated lost production of almost 408,000 vehicles for Ford due to the shortage, with Wednesday's actions accounting for more than 91,300 of that total.
“We know it’s difficult not knowing your specific work schedules in the weeks ahead,” John Savona, Ford’s vice president of manufacturing and labor affairs, said in the memo. “We appreciate your continued flexibility and commitment to delivering high-quality vehicles for our customers and dealers.”
The company also plans to temporarily stop production at its Ford Otosan facility in Gölcük, Turkey, from April 19 to June 13. A spokeswoman said that period includes two planned weeks of annual summer shutdown and a national holiday week that were scheduled for later in the year.
Also on Wednesday, Honda Motor Co. said it may cut production at some of its North American plants the week of April 19 due to the chip shortage and other factors, calling the situation "fluid." German automaker Volkswagen Group idled production of its Tiguan crossover vehicle at its Puebla, Mexico, plant on Wednesday and Thursday.
Nissan Motor Co. is adjusting production at its two U.S. vehicle assembly plants due to the shortage, spokeswoman Lloryn Love-Carter said in an email Wednesday. Sunday night shift and Friday day shift production have been canceled for the remainder of April at the automaker’s Smyrna, Tenn., factory. Nissan builds several high-volume utility vehicles in Smyrna, including the Rogue, Pathfinder and Murano.
At Nissan’s Canton, Miss., assembly plant, Sunday night shift and Friday day shift production for Titan and Frontier pickups have been canceled for the month. Also, production of the Altima sedan in Canton will be suspended for six days this month.
“We continue to work closely with our supplier partners to assess the impact of supply chain issues and minimize disruption for vehicle deliveries to our dealers and customers,” Love-Carter said.
Reuters and Urvaksh Karkaria of Automotive News contributed to this report.
