PPG Industries Inc. (NYSE: PPG) said performance coatings segment net sales rose 2% in Q4 2024, to $1.26 billion, and a review of quarterly data shows 2024 full year results were up just less than 1%, to $9.85 billion.
Segment income for the quarter leapt 19% to $259 million; segment income for the full year climbed about 9% to $1.75 billion.
Pittsburgh-based PPG makes industrial and performance coatings products, including automotive refinish products, software and a smartphone app for body shops and collision centers. The performance coatings segment includes those results.
Overall, PPG saw fourth quarter and full year net sales of $3.7 billion and $15.8 billion from continuing operations, the earnings press release said.
“Throughout 2024, we demonstrated resilience in a challenging macro environment,” PPG President and CEO Tim Knavish said in the release.
Results reflect a recasting of financial information to include discontinued operations, following PPG’s sale of its U.S. and Canada architectural coatings business -- residential and commercial painting products, including manufacturing, distribution and retail. PPG said in October it would sell this unit to the private equity-backed American Industrial Partners for a transaction value of $550 million. The deal closed in early December.
The sale would result in a pre-tax charge in Q4 of about $250 million, PPG said in October.
Performance Coatings and Automotive Refinish
PPG’s performance coatings segment net sales have been flat or steady through the year -- from down 1% in the first quarter, to up 2% in Q4. In the middle two quarters, the segment was essentially unchanged.
The “segment income %” improved, amid some fluctuation through the year, from 15.4% in Q1 to 20.5% in Q4.
PPG’s earnings releases don’t break out specific results for automotive refinishing -- body shop and collision center products -- but PPG does offer brief comment on global and sometimes domestic results for these.
“Organic sales in automotive refinish coatings declined by a low single-digit percentage with share gains more than offset by lower industry collision claims,” PPG said of its fourth quarter.
In Q3, these grew “by a mid-single-digit percentage, including high single-digit percentage increases in U.S. collision-related products and despite lower overall industry collision claims.”
In Q2, this area’s “organic sales were lower by a mid-single-digit percentage, as a challenging prior-year comparison and uneven distributor order patterns in the U.S. offset solid growth in Asia and Europe.”
In Q1, “Automotive refinish coatings organic sales were flat, as a challenging prior year comparison in the U.S. offset solid growth in Asia Pacific, Latin America and Europe.”
Paul Hughes