AMU: Ford confirms Novelis Oswego hot mill restart expected by early December

Ford executives said during the third-quarter earnings call on Thursday that the automaker has been in close communication with Novelis following the September fire at its Oswego facility. They also confirmed that Novelis expects the mill to restart in late November/early December with a rapid production ramp-up through the remainder of the year.

The comment came in response to an analyst’s question during the Q&A portion of the call.

“That is in line with our communication with Novelis. The hot mill, which is down now, will be operational in late November/early December. It’ll then go through a quick ramp-up through December,” said Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s chief operating officer.

Oswego details

The hot-mill outage stems from a Sept. 16 fire at Novelis’ Oswego aluminum rolling plant, which ignited after 10 P.M. ET inside the mill’s hot-rolling area. At the time, a Novelis spokesperson told AMU that the extent of the damage was still being assessed and that the company expected to provide more detail on operational impacts.

The Oswego facility is Novelis’ largest wholly owned site in North America and its first U.S. operation. It produces flat-rolled aluminum primarily for automotive body sheet and structural applications, as well as beverage can stock, as analyzed in an AMU piece shortly after the incident.

CRU estimates the site accounts for roughly 40% of total U.S. and Canadian auto body sheet production capacity.

Earnings impact

Ford’s Q3 2025 earnings presentation identified the Novelis outage as one of the company’s largest external headwinds, estimating a $1.5-2.0 billion hit to adjusted EBIT and a $2-3 billion reduction to adjusted free cash flow for the full year.

Ford said it expects lost fourth-quarter production of around 90,000-100,000 vehicles, primarily affecting its truck lines.

To offset the shortfall, the company plans to add a third shift at its Dearborn Truck plant and introduce higher line speed at its Kentucky Truck plant, which together are projected to recover roughly 50,000 units of lost output in 2026.

“It’s important to realize that the makeup capacity next year, will largely depend on Ford’s capacity makeup. Even if we have more availability of aluminum, the real lever for us is going to be our own upside. And we’re working through that – this is still early days,” said James Farley, President and CEO of Ford.

Novelis did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.