Pittsburgh-based paint and coatings manufacturer PPG plans to eliminate 1,700 positions around the globe as part of a restructuring aimed at saving $125 million annually.
The cuts would amount to a 3.6 percent reduction to the company’s global workforce of 46,600 employees. A spokesman said the company there will be “minimal overall impact to any one specific region.”
“We don’t have additional details to share on the impact to specific locations,” Mark Silvey, PPG director of corporate communications said in an email. “The restructuring efforts are focused on regions and end-use markets where business conditions are weakest. Separately, PPG continues to invest and grow its workforce in parts of the company that continue to exhibit growth potential.”
The company had indicated on its third quarter earnings call in October that it was contemplating restructuring actions, but did not provide details at the time. PPG announced Friday it would record a pretax restructuring charge of $190 million to $200 million. The actions were to be targeted at reductions in operating, functional and administrative costs.
Silvey did not provide any details on the potential impact of the actions on PPG’s Oak Creek facility. The company has almost 500 employees at the facility that does work for the automotive OEM, industrial coating and packaging coating businesses.
The company also recently invested $3 million in a new liquid coatings application development center earlier this year.
The company’s recent results suggest a mixed picture for the businesses supported by the Oak Creek facility.
Those businesses are part of PPG’s industrial coatings segment. Income for that segment was up 8.2 percent for the first nine months of the year to $806 million. The segment had revenue of $4.3 billion during the period, a 3.6 percent increase.
In the third quarter, the company’s management said the automotive OEM sales volumes were up in the low-to-mid-single digits. The growth rates were highest in Asia and growth continued in Europe. Volumes were down in the U.S. and Canada.
General industrial coatings were down in the U.S. and Canada because of continued softness in end-use markets.
The packaging costings business increase in the low-to-mid-single digits with continued strong sales growth momentum in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific regions.
The performance coatings segment, meanwhile, increased revenue 2.2 percent to $1.1 billion. Revenue was down 1.6 percent to $6.6 billion in the first nine months.
