by ObservationalHumor
One of Ford’s suppliers had a big fire at their plant sometime last week and as a result has shutdown production. Well that’s spilled over to Ford itself and they’re idling plants temporarily until it’s resolved. The fire itself took took place at a plant that produces magnesium parts and for those who don’t know a magnesium fire is not a pretty event as it burns quite hot (4000 deg F vs around 1100 deg F for wood). So it’s possible it will take a while to get things back to full capacity and there’s currently no ETA for when that is.
As anyone who follows Ford knows the F-150 is their big cash cow currently. I have to imagine they have insurance to cover these types of events but earnings might be lumpier over the next two quarters depending on when that ends up paying out and how long this outage persists for.
Update – Four Months to get the plant as a whole rebuilt. Some of the plant is still working and has been reopened.
Source: www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2018/05/09/plant-rebuilding/594751002/