By Nora Eckert
DETROIT (Reuters) -Ford Motor on Friday stood by its annual EBIT guidance of $6 billion to $6.5 billion for this year following another fire this week at aluminum supplier Novelis’ New York plant.
Ford’s stock rose about 4% during Friday’s session, extending gains after the automaker reaffirmed the outlook it had already revised because of production disruptions from a devastating blaze at the supplier’s plant in September.
In October, the carmaker cut its profit forecast, citing a gross hit of up to $2 billion from the incident. Ford expects to offset about $1 billion of that next year by increasing production at certain truck plants, it said in October.
Ford is a major customer of Novelis because its trucks use a largely aluminum body. The automaker indefinitely paused production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup in Michigan after the September fire at Novelis’ Oswego, New York, factory. Output of its lucrative gas-powered F-150 lineup has also been disrupted.
In October, Novelis said it planned to restart operations at the affected part of the plant by the end of December, an acceleration from its previous projection of resuming by the first quarter of 2026. The Ford statement on Friday did not outline any changes to that timeline.
“Novelis and Ford will continue to provide updates as further details become available,” the statement said.
(Reporting by Nora Eckert; Editing by David Gregorio)
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