PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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.