Ford F-Series truck production hits multi-year highs amid sales slump

Ford F-Series truck production hits multi-year highs amid sales slump

Wed, September 2, 2026 at 8:18 PM GMT+3 2 min read

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Ford confirmed Wednesday that production of its Super Duty trucks hit a 20-year high in August, while F-150 output reached its highest level in two years, as the automaker works to replenish dealer inventories after fires at a key aluminum supplier disrupted manufacturing over the past year.

Super Duty production exceeded 39,000 units in August, the company said, the highest monthly total since March 2006. F-150 production was the strongest since August 2024. Both the F-150 and larger Super Duty models — including the F-250, F-350, and F-450 — rely on aluminum bodies and other aluminum components, making them vulnerable to the supply disruption.

The fires struck an aluminum facility in Oswego, New York, operated by supplier Novelis in September and November of last year. Since the fires, Ford has worked alongside Novelis to bring the Oswego facility back to full operation. The disruption is expected to cost Ford $1.5 billion this year.

Rob Kaffl, Ford's head of U.S. sales, said dealers would feel the impact of higher production within the next few months. "We're increasing production. Dealers will start seeing in the next 30, 60, 90 days that ramp-up in production," Kaffl told CNBC. "We have a healthy chain of in-transit and in-system."

Ford dealers currently hold about 40 days' worth of pickup truck inventory, a figure that sits near half the threshold long regarded as adequate across the industry. Kaffl said Ford's goal is to push that figure to between 50 and 60 days, well below the 75-to-90-day range the industry has historically maintained.

Despite the production recovery, Ford recorded its eighth consecutive month of year-over-year U.S. sales declines in August. Total sales fell 10.3% compared with a year earlier, and F-Series sales are down 10.9% through August, including a 1.2% drop last month. Ford estimated the broader industry saw a 6% decline in new vehicle sales during the month.

Ford pointed to two additional headwinds: the earlier discontinuation of a pair of vehicle models, which complicates year-over-year measurement, and a deliberate pullback in fleet rental volume. The company also pointed out that Labor Day weekend, historically one of the busiest selling periods of the year, shifts to September on this year's calendar after landing in August in 2025.

Even with consecutive months of declining overall sales, Ford's retail share of the U.S. market — a figure that strips out fleet transactions — came in at 11.7% for August.

The F-Series production problems date to the supplier fires that pushed F-Series sales down 11% in the second quarter, when Ford reported overall U.S. vehicle sales of 549,200 units, a 10% decline from a year earlier. At that time, Ford said it expected stronger F-Series sales in the second half of 2026.