PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Tim Knavish: Yes, you really hit the Phase 3, but particularly to the volume, we’ve got aero still down significantly. We’ve got auto, auto has been at recession levels for three years now. There’s pent-up demand across the planet for cars. Refinish is still down 10%-ish from 2019. In addition to what Vince mentioned, we have done a good bit of cost out during this period as well and restructuring. So we’ll get levered from that. We’re not completely finished with our acquisition synergy realization. So, as I said, I used the term shopping list. We’ve got a shopping list of items that are contributed to our margin in public.

Operator: Our next question comes from Stephen Byrne with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead, Stephen.

Stephen Byrne: Yes. Thank you. Tim, you made a comment a few minutes ago about inflation outside of raws. And I just wanted to drill into this near-term outlook of yours of low-single-digit inflation in the first quarter. Is that a comment on broadly cost of goods? Or is it just raws? And are you also seeing it in labor and freight and so forth? And maybe just on the raw side of that, for first quarter, when would you say that flowing through cost of goods is based on? What month would be the midpoint of your purchases that would flow through cost of goods in the first quarter versus your purchases of those raws today, what would you say that would reflect in terms of maybe second quarter raw material costs?

Vince Morales: Sure, Steve. I think the numbers you were quoting at the beginning of your question were raw material, okay? So Q4, we were up mid-single digits year-over-year, down low single digits sequentially. In Q1, we expect to see modest down year-over-year and another sequential step down. The reality of flow-through is, we’re really flowing through inventory that we have on hand now pretty much and that will flow through throughout Q1. So, we’re expecting the positive benefits of that on the P&L to really not show itself significantly until Q2. Okay. And then on the other inflation, that’s going to be, at least for now, that’s going to be pretty constant as we move from Q1 into Q2 around labor inflation and some of the other installations.

Vince Morales: Yes. And, Steve, just going back to what Tim said earlier in the call. That’s why we’re doing targeted pricing in — across our portfolio to compensate for this other inflation that’s going to be higher year-over-year, primarily labor. I’m not seeing as much freight as you pointed out. It’s not been an inflationary factor the last couple of quarters.

Operator: Our next question comes from Duffy Fischer of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, Duffy.

Duffy Fischer: Question just around price. So, as you ended last year, if you just anniversary the price that you had at that point, how much would that move up price this year just from an accounting standpoint as we roll through? And two, I’d imagine you’ve gone out with a lot of your price increases already. So if you average that across the Company kind of what’s the ask on price that you’ve sent out to customers so far this year?

Vince Morales: Yes. Duffy, I’ll handle the first part of the question. The carryover pricing — we do have every quarter, our price off of our sales base so that you can do the math. You come up with several hundreds of millions of dollars of price carryover in 2023 and from our 2022 pricing initiatives. Again, if you just do the math, you can easily come up with that. It’s certainly north of $300 million and will be carried over.

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