Novelis will restart production Wednesday at its aluminum-rolling plant in Oswego, New York, nine months after a fire shut the facility and disrupted automotive supply chains, the company said. The plant is the largest U.S. supplier of aluminum sheet for automakers including Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, and its prolonged outage cost customers billions of dollars.
A fire in September 2025 idled the rolling line where aluminum sheet is produced. A second fire in November 2025 caused additional damage to the rolling equipment and the plant building, the company said. The thin aluminum sheets produced at the plant are later stamped into fenders, hoods and other exterior vehicle parts.
The outage hit Ford particularly hard. The automaker uses aluminum for the body of its F-150 pickup truck, America’s bestselling vehicle for decades. The subsequent shortage reduced Ford’s inventories of trucks at its dealers going into the summer, typically a busy period for new auto sales.
Novelis said it mobilized plants in Europe and South Korea to supply U.S. customers during the outage. But the contingencies cost automakers billions of dollars, the company said.
“While this is positive progress, the disruption is a clear reminder of the distress facing many automotive suppliers today,” a Ford spokesman said. “Ford is committed to finding new and enhanced ways to work with our partners to prioritize long-term supply chain resilience.”
Broader market conditions have compounded supply chain pressures. The U.S. 50% tariff on imported aluminum and the war with Iran have driven up the price of aluminum and tightened global supply, according to the company. The Middle East is a major aluminum-producing region.
Automakers have increased their use of lightweight aluminum in recent years. The auto industry in North America consumed 3.7 million metric tons of aluminum last year, nearly 30% more than in 2020, according to metals-market consulting firm CRU.
Novelis said it expects the Oswego plant to operate at less than full capacity in the coming weeks.
“We are deeply grateful for the flexibility and partnership our customers have shown, as well as the extraordinary efforts of our employees,” Novelis President Steve Fisher said.
Atlanta-based Novelis, a unit of India’s Hindalco Industries, is in the process of adding more production capacity for automotive sheet at a new rolling plant under construction in Alabama. The company said it expects the full plant to be close to starting by the end of the year.