DEARBORN, MI—Difficulties in obtaining semiconductor chips will prompt Ford Motor Co. to temporarily halt or scale back production at eight assembly plants in North America.
Ford is stopping production at its Chicago Assembly plant, which builds Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator SUVs. Ford’s Cuautitlan, Mexico assembly plant, which builds the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV, is also being shut down this week.
“The global semiconductor shortage continues to affect Ford’s North American plants—along with automakers and other industries around the world,” Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker said in an email.
The Chicago Assembly Plant, for example, will be down the week of Feb. 7. The factory was previously shut down for most of July because of the semiconductor shortage. The plant had been repeatedly shut down last year, along with other Ford plants across the country, because of a shortage of the chips that are used in rearview cameras, lane assist, parallel parking assist and other technological features that have become standard in many new vehicles.Some production is also being halted at other Ford factories, including Ford F-150 production at the automaker’s Kansas City Assembly Plant. Production of Transit vans will continue there, though, with the factory running on just one shift instead of the usual two. Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant, which builds F-150 pickups near the company’s Michigan headquarters, will also run on just one shift this week. The Dearborn factory has normally been running three shifts. Production at Ford’s assembly plants in Kentucky and Oakville, Ontario, Canada, will also be scaled back.
