On the Dash:
- Super Duty production topped 39,000 units in August, Ford’s best month since March 2006.
- F-150 output reached its highest level since August 2024 as aluminum supply normalized.
- Dealers hold about 40 days’ supply of pickups, below Ford’s 50 to 60 day target.
Ford’s Super Duty production hit a 20-year high in August, the automaker confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday. Output topped 39,000 units, Ford‘s best month for the truck since March 2006.
F-150 production also reached its highest level since August 2024. Both figures mark a turnaround from the aluminum shortage that throttled F-Series output for nearly a year. Ford spent that stretch helping its supplier, Novelis, restart its Oswego, New York, plant. Fires hit the facility in September and November of last year.
Trucks are headed back to dealer lots
An influx of pickups should hit dealer lots over the coming weeks. The ramp-up is already underway, according to Rob Kaffl, head of U.S. sales.
Dealers are currently sitting on roughly 40 days’ supply of pickups. That is about half of what the industry has historically considered healthy for trucks. Ford is targeting 50 to 60 days’ supply, under the traditional 75 to 90 days. Inventory ran tight through the spring, when F-150 stock fell nearly 24% from October levels.
Sales are still falling as supply catches up
August was the automaker’s eighth consecutive month of year-over-year U.S. sales declines. Volume dropped 10.3% from the same month last year. F-Series sales are off 10.9% through August, including a 1.2% decrease in August alone.
The recovery matters most to Ford Pro, the automaker’s commercial business, which is led by Super Duty sales. Those trucks range from the F-150 up through commercial trucks and chassis cabs. Their aluminum bodies also left them the most exposed when the Novelis plant went down.
Discontinued models muddy the numbers
Two vehicles Ford discontinued earlier this year are making year-over-year comparisons harder to clear. Planned reductions in daily rental fleet sales are pulling volume out of the monthly totals. Labor Day added a wrinkle. The holiday weekend falls in September this year after landing in August in 2025.
Retail market share has held relatively level in 2026, at 11.7% in August. That figure strips out fleet sales. Ford estimates industrywide new vehicle sales will fall 6% this year.
The Novelis disruption is expected to cost Ford $1.5 billion in 2026. The plant returned to service in June after a nine-month shutdown. The outage ranked among the industry’s most damaging supply chain events in years.
