F Ford Motor Company

By Aisha Al-Muslim 

Ford Motor Co. is resuming production of F-150 and Super Duty trucks ahead of schedule at three assembly plants after a fire earlier this month at one of its supplier's facilities created a parts shortage.

The Dearborn, Mich.-based auto maker said Wednesday it is restarting production of the F-150 pickup at a Dearborn plant on Friday, after it went offline last week Wednesday. By Monday, the company expects to restart production on Super Duty trucks at a plant in Louisville, Ky., and F-150s at its Kansas City, Mo., assembly plant.

"While the situation remains extremely dynamic, our teams are focused on returning our plants to full production as fast as possible," said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of global operations, in prepared remarks. "The ramp-up time to full production is improving every day."

Ford expects the production stoppage to dent second-quarter per-share earnings by 12 cents to 14 cents. However, the company again backed its guidance of annual adjusted earnings between $1.45 a share and $1.70 a share.

Shares in Ford rose 0.4% in after-hours trading.

Last week, Ford suspended F-150 production and said it was working to offset U.S. production losses as the shortage of die-cast components had affected its manufacturing operations.

Meridian Lightweight Technologies, owned by China's Wanfeng Auto Holding Group, operates the Eaton Rapids, Mich., plant where the May 2 blaze occurred. Ford accounts for less than one-third of the volume of output from the affected Meridian plant, Ford had said last week.

The F-150 is Ford's best-selling vehicle and generates the bulk of its global profit.

The disruption was initially expected to have an "adverse impact" on company earnings, but will have less of an effect than initially estimated, executives said during a conference call Wednesday afternoon.

Write to Aisha Al-Muslim at aisha.al-muslim@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 16, 2018 17:35 ET (21:35 GMT)

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