Automakers did not strongly seek aluminium tariff relief, White House official says

April 8 (Reuters) – Ford Motor and other U.S. automakers have not made a strong request for relief from aluminium tariffs despite supply disruptions caused by fires at a key supplier, a White House official said on Wednesday.

“While Ford and other automakers have raised supply concerns in light of the Novelis incident, they have not requested tariff relief on this matter in a particularly pronounced way,” the official said.

WSJ had reported late Tuesday that Ford and other U.S. automakers had requested relief from aluminium tariffs to ease bottlenecks after the fires, and that the U.S. government had rejected the requests.

Ford did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Two blazes last year took aluminium supplier Novelis’ Oswego plant offline. The plant supplies material for Ford’s lucrative F-150 truck line.

Novelis also supplies several automakers, including Stellantis and General Motors, but Ford is a major customer because its trucks use a largely aluminium body.

The fires spurred supply bottlenecks, which saw Ford cutting its 2025 profit guidance. The company said production would drop by up to 100,000 F-Series pickup trucks through the end of 2025 and cost Ford up to $2 billion.

While Novelis has been making up for lost production with aluminium from its plants in South Korea and Europe, the imported metal is subject to a 50% duty under the new tariff regime.

(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Barcelona and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Bernadette Baum)