Troubled Aluminum Supplier Back In Action Ford Aluminum supplier Novelis has restarted production at its plant in Oswego, New York, the company said in a statement. The plant is a key part of Ford's F-Series supply chain, and it has been down since the first in a series of fires last September."Restarting the Oswego hot mill is an important step forward for our operations and, most importantly, for our customers," said Steve Fisher, president and CEO, Novelis Inc. "We are deeply grateful for the flexibility and partnership our customers have shown, as well as the extraordinary efforts of our employees, suppliers and industry peers who came together to support continuity of supply."Before the outages, the plant produced more than one billion pounds of aluminum sheet per year, or around 40% of the total US supply. Much of this output was used by the automotive sector, and though GM and Stellantis also sourced aluminum from the site, it was Ford's completely aluminum-bodied trucks that bore the brunt of the shutdown.Novelis had sourced some supply from South Korea and Europe during the downtime, so it wasn't a complete stoppage for Ford. However, that production would have been hit with higher shipping costs and tariffs. Best-Seller Spot Now Seems Secure Ford The shortage led to Ford canceling the Lightning electric pickup to redirect materials to the standard F-Series. Ford said that shortages put its estimated F-Series truck production down by more than 50,000 units. It was struggling to recover the lost volume this year until an issue at one of Ford's own stamping plants put another dent in the plan.Ford's F-Series trucks have been the best-selling vehicles in the US for close to 50 years. These production issues have been GM and Ram's best chance to catch Ford in a very long time, but still haven't been enough. In the first quarter of this year, Ford was down more than 30,000 units. Chevrolet sold 128,818 Silverado pickups to hold second place, but it was still another 30,000 units behind the 159,901 F-Series trucks Ford sold.It's not clear when Ford or others will start getting sheet metal from the plant, when that metal would make it to the assembly line, or how long it would take Ford to catch up on the 50,000 lost units. CarBuzz has reached out to Ford for a statement on the news. CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters: The Ford F-Series, including F-150 and Super Duty models, has been America's bestselling vehicle line since the 1970s. It's a key component of many business fleets and for retail customers, and a shortage of aluminum has meant less selection and higher costs for both groups. While Ford has absorbed some of the increases, some of those costs have been passed on to the customer.Getting the plant back up and running means more American-sourced aluminum for Ford's trucks and the SUVs that were affected. That should be good for selection and pricing. It's also good for soda and beer drinkers, since much of the plant's non-automotive output went to beverage canning.Source: Novelis