DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. has idled production of its F-150 pickup truck for three weeks at its assembly plant in Kansas City due to slow demand, a spokeswoman said on April 1.

Ford builds the pickup truck on two shifts at the plant, which also produces the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner sport-utility vehicles and their hybrid variants.

The pickup truck production was idled effective at the start of this week and production is scheduled to resume the week of April 20, Ford spokeswoman Angie Kozleski said.

The plant has nearly 3,900 hourly workers overall.

Ford, which posted a company record $14.7 billion net loss last year, said it remains committed to sizing production capacity to real demand for its vehicles.

Sales of Ford's F-Series pickups that include the F-150 were down nearly 45 percent to 81,579 vehicles in the first quarter of 2009 from the same period a year ago.