Operator: Our final question today comes from Jaideep Pandya with On Field Investment Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Jaideep Pandya: Thanks. Maybe it’s not relevant, but given how low volumes are across the value chain, could you tell us like what is the spare capacity you have? I’m basically asking this question because a lot of investors are wondering if the margin growth left in the coating sector beyond 2024 and given that it looks like in 2025, 2026, growth will come from volume. Just wondering what is the spare capacity you have in the system these days? That’s my first question. The second question is really around raw materials. Do you expect to buy in sync with your volume growth this year? Or would you still destock? And therefore, if your volume growth is, let’s say, up 2%, we shouldn’t really expect raw material purchasing to be upto should be maybe zero.
And the last question really is on Marine protective. You alluded to firefighting protective – one of your competitors is very strong in that area. So have to launched new products and therefore gaining share from that competitor or is that a market is just doing very well? Thanks a lot.
Tim Knavish: Okay. Let me take those on, Jaideep. Its Tim. First of all, capacity. We got plenty of capacity. We have capacity. You know volumes are still down significantly versus 2019. And yes, we haven’t taken capacity out since 2019. And frankly I would say our industry peers and certainly our suppliers. There’s capacity. So yes, you’re exactly right. You should expect that as volume comes up, certainly, we will get leverage from that volume, which will drop as margin improvement. Second question, raw materials and inventories. We do still have probably a few days higher DOI that we would like to have, $100 million, $150 million more raw material inventory than we would like to have. So yes, we will be buying raw materials in Q1 as we get ready for the peak paint season and some of them are more seasonal businesses, but maybe a little bit less than what links directly to demand because of that excess that we’re sitting on today.
And finally, on marine and protective, the quick answer is yes. We have launched some new products, new technologies recently in the fire protection area. That are quite strong and being well received by the market. For hydrocarbon fire protection is a product called PITT-CHAR NX, which has been very well received and on the cellulosic fire protection side, a product called STEELGUARD 651, which is also being very well received. So those new technologies are delivering share gain for us. But separate from fire protection, we’ve got really a fantastic product on the marine dry dock side that’s very sustainable, very fuel efficient and drives — it’s really getting really good market receptivity and we’ve got a lot of share gains that will be — we’ll reap the benefits of those share gains in 2024 and beyond, and that’s a product called SIGMAGLIDE.
So, it is technology-driven in those spaces.
Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I’ll now turn the call back over to Jonathan Edwards.
Jonathan Edwards: Thank you, Elliot. Well done today. We appreciate your interest and confidence in PPG and this concludes our fourth quarter earnings call. Have a good day.
Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.
