Oswego County said more than 80 firefighters from 20 fire departments fought flames at the Novelis aluminum plant for hours Thursday morning, and several other departments were on standby.
It was a difficult morning for the plant, which had a small fire in October and a major fire in September that caused extensive damage to its hot mill area. That area is where aluminum is melted and rolled into sheets. Auto manufacturers are the biggest users of those sheets.
Patrick Penfield, a professor of supply chain practice at Syracuse University, said the ramifications of the September fire were huge for automaker Ford.
“They couldn't get what they needed from an aluminum standpoint, so Ford, in fact, announced that they had to reduce their earnings just because they won't be able to produce enough F150s, which uses a lot of the aluminum sheet metal that Ford produces," Penfield said.
Penfield said as Novelis works to get operations back underway, consumers could see effects.
"One of the things that they'll see is just the availability of getting a F150 truck, and that's the best-selling vehicle in the United States,” Penfield said. “You're going to see less of those. They'll probably be higher priced, and there's definitely going to be issues in trying to buy a new Ford truck."
The extent of the damage from last week's fire is still not known. Novelis was hoping to have its hot mill back up and running by the end of the year. In a joint statement from Novelis and Ford, Novelis said it’s leveraging alternative sources, including its global network of plants and industry peers, to mitigate the fire’s impact. Novelis is also planning to build an additional plant in Alabama.
