Ford Motor said Wednesday that it has sharply increased production of its F-Series pickup trucks, reaching 20-year highs for Super Duty models and two-year highs for F-150s, as it recovers from aluminum supply disruptions that hobbled output for much of the past year. The production rebound, however, has not yet translated into sales growth, with the automaker reporting its eighth straight monthly year-over-year decline in U.S. new vehicle deliveries.
Ford confirmed to CNBC that its large, highly profitable Super Duty trucks — which include the F-250, F-350 and F-450 — saw August production exceed 39,000 units, the best month for those models since March 2006. F-150 production last month was the highest since August 2024. The company said F-Series production has increased every month this year and is now in line with, or slightly above, historical levels.
The production gains mark a major step in Ford’s recovery from fires at a Novelis aluminum plant in Oswego, New York, in September and November of last year. The plant supplies aluminum for the F-Series trucks, which rely heavily on large aluminum bodies and other components. Ford has spent the past year helping the supplier restart the facility, and the automaker now expects the disruption to cost it $1.5 billion this year.
Rob Kaffl, Ford’s head of U.S. sales, said Wednesday that the increased output means dealers should start seeing a wave of pickups arriving on their lots over the next 30 to 90 days. “We have a healthy chain of in-transit and in-system,” he said, adding that “gross availability of products coming in … is returning back to normalcy.”
Ford’s U.S. sales in August fell 10.3% compared with a year earlier, marking the company’s eighth consecutive month of year-over-year declines. F-Series sales remain down 10.9% through August versus the same period in 2024, including a 1.2% drop last month. The company noted that year-over-year comparisons were complicated by the discontinuation of two vehicles earlier this year and by planned reductions in sales to daily rental fleets. Ford also said Labor Day — historically a major sales weekend — fell in September this year, versus August last year, making the comparisons tougher.
Despite the sales slide, Ford said its U.S. retail market share, which excludes fleet customers, held relatively steady in August at 11.7%. The broader U.S. auto industry is also slowing, with Ford estimating an industry-wide sales decline of 6% in new vehicles.
Dealer inventory of Ford pickups currently stands at roughly 40 days’ supply, about half of what the industry typically considers healthy for these vehicles. Kaffl reiterated that Ford is targeting a days’ supply of between 50 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.
The production ramp-up is crucial for Ford’s bottom line: F-Series trucks, particularly the Super Duty models sold under the Ford Pro commercial business, are among the automaker’s most profitable vehicles. Ford Pro’s lineup spans from F-150s to commercial trucks and chassis cabs.
With the Novelis plant now operating again, Ford is manufacturing at higher levels than last year in an attempt to make up for lost output and satisfy pent-up demand. “Dealers will start seeing in the next 30, 60, 90 days that ramp-up in production,” Kaffl said Wednesday.
Source: www.cnbc.com — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/02/ford-sales-f-150-production.html
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