DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co said on Thursday it for now will assemble its flagship, highly profitable F-150 pickup trucks and Edge SUVs in North America without certain parts and idle two assembly plants due to the global semiconductor chip shortage. The U.S. automaker said the chip shortage, combined with the shortage of a part caused by the central U.S. winter storm, is prompting it to build the vehicles and then hold them “for a number of weeks” until they can be completed and shipped. The affected vehicles number in the “thousands,” a spokeswoman said. Ford said it is also idling production at plants in Louisville, Kentucky, and Cologne, Germany. The costs associated with these actions are covered in the Dearborn, Michigan-based company’s previous forecast that its profits this year could be hit by $1 billion to $2.5 billion due to the chip shortage.