Last week, Ford made headlines about how its updated Mustang is selling. However, buried a bit deeper in Ford’s sales update was some not-so-rosy news. Sales of the F-Series pickup are still depressed compared to a year ago. And while that may be partially reflective of the fact that fewer people are buying full-size domestic pickups right now than they were just a few years ago, Ford says it has nevertheless been struggling to fill demand for its high-volume (and highly profitable) pickups since last fall, when a fire halted output at one of the nation’s biggest domestic aluminum parts suppliers, Novelis.

 

Novelis, which supplies aluminum to many automakers beyond just Ford, says production at its Oswego, New York, facility should resume in June. In the meantime, Novelis has been forced to fulfill its contract with aluminum sourced from overseas. Yep, that means tariffs, and to the tune of 25%. This is particularly painful for Ford, which for a while had a vegan-like penchant for reminding people just what it puts into its bodies—in this case, the aluminum panels it uses for its full-size pickups.