Another fire has broken out at the Novelis aluminum plant in Oswego, New York. This facility supplies sheet metal for Ford’s trucks, including the all-electric F-150 Lightning. The four-alarm fire started on Thursday morning and was still burning at the time of the report. Everyone working at the plant was safely evacuated. Novelis stated that the fire is under control but crews remain on site to ensure it is fully extinguished.
The Novelis plant previously suffered a major fire in September which halted operations. Ford indicated that disruption would likely cost the automaker around two billion dollars. A second, smaller fire occurred in October. Despite these incidents, the aluminum supplier had planned to restart production at the New York facility in December. Other automakers, including Stellantis and Nissan, also experienced smaller production impacts as a result of the September fire.
Following the September fire, Ford had to scale back production of nearly all its F-150 trucks, which have used aluminum body panels for years. The automaker slowly resumed building those trucks again in October. However, Ford was prioritizing the production of gas and hybrid versions over the F-150 Lightning.
It is not yet clear what impact this new fire will have on Ford’s production plans. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Oswego Fire Department also did not immediately return requests for comment. This story has been updated with new information from Novelis.