Bob Tita

The automotive industry depends on aluminum because it's lightweight, and the more you use, the better your fuel economy is because you're taking weight out of a vehicle.

So Ford is the biggest user of aluminum from the plant in Oswego, New York, operated by Novellus, and it can't get enough aluminum.

It's caused a slowdown in production of the F-150s, so there's dealers that are nervous about having enough trucks to sell, particularly now in the summer months.

There's been some discussion about

particularly in the steel industry, would automotive companies start to use more steel because it's somewhat less expensive and there's a lot of it in the United States.

It's not something that can be done quickly.

Ford last week said that it expects its commodity cost to increase by about $2 billion this year.

Most of that comes from paying more for aluminum, according to the company.