Ford sales fall 10.3% in August as it ramps up F-Series production

DETROIT — Ford Motor said Wednesday it’s continuing to increase production of its crucial F-Series full-size pickup trucks after fires at an aluminum supplier severely impacted output over the past year.

The Detroit automaker expects an influx of pickups expected to arrive on dealership lots over the coming weeks and months, said Rob Kaffl, Ford’s head of U.S. sales.

“We’re increasing production. Dealers will start seeing in the next 30, 60, 90 days that ramp-up in production,” Kaffl said Wednesday. “We have a healthy chain of in-transit and in-system.”

Ford reported Wednesday that production of F-Series pickup trucks, including the F-150 and its larger siblings, have increased every month this year to being in line with, or slightly above, historical levels. F-150 production of 57,504 units in August was the highest monthly production in two years, according to Ford’s data.

The increase in the supply of pickup trucks comes as Ford experienced its eighth consecutive month of year-over-year U.S. new vehicle sales declines in August. The automaker reported Wednesday that sales were down 10.3% for the month compared with a year earlier.

“Our gross availability of products coming in, I would say, is returning back to normalcy – the normal levels our dealers would have,” Kaffl said.

Ford said Wednesday F-Series sales remain off 10.9% through August compared to a year earlier, including a 1.2% decrease last month.

Ford dealers currently have a roughly 40 days’ supply of pickup trucks, which is about half of what the industry has typically considers a healthy level for those vehicles. Kaffl reiterated that Ford is targeting a days’ supply of the trucks of between 50 days 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.

To meet that pent-up demand, Ford has been increasing manufacturing to higher levels than it had last year in an attempt to make up lost production. The F-Series was hit when two fires halted operations last year at a New York plant of aluminum supplier Novelis, which is expected to cost the automaker $1.5 billion this year.

In addition to lower production of pickup trucks, Ford said its sales have been impacted by the discontinuation of two vehicles earlier this year that makes comparisons harder to meet as well as planned lower sales to daily rental fleets.

Ford also said Labor Day — which is historically a major sales weekend — was a touch comparison since it falls in September this year compared to August of last year.

U.S. automakers overall are experiencing slowing sales, with Ford estimating an industry-wide decline of 6% in new vehicle sales.