PPG recently reported second quarter 2019 net sales of approximately US$4 billion, down nearly 3% versus the prior year. Net sales in constant currencies were about 1% higher than the prior year driven by higher selling prices of more than 2%. Sales volumes were down about 4% versus the prior year in aggregate, including about 1.5% stemming from the previously announced U.S. architectural coatings customer-assortment changes. Unfavorable foreign currency translation impacted net sales by more than 3%, or about US$130 million, and acquisition-related sales, net of divestitures, added more than 2% to sales growth.

Second quarter 2019 reported net income from continuing operations was US$270 million, or US$1.13 per diluted share. Adjusted net income from continuing operations was US$441 million, or US$1.85 per diluted share. Adjusted figures exclude an after-tax business restructuring charge of US$133 million and other adjustments totaling US$38 million, or 56 cents and 16 cents per diluted share, respectively. Second quarter 2018 reported net income from continuing operations was $US371 million, or US$1.51 per diluted share. Second quarter 2018 adjusted net income from continuing operations was US$468 million, or US$1.90 per diluted share. For the second quarter 2019, the reported and adjusted effective tax rates were about 24% - higher than the second quarter 2018 reported and adjusted effective tax rates of approximately 22%.

“We remain committed to recovering our operating margins and in the quarter delivered higher gross profit and segment operating margins compared to the prior year. This is despite weak global industrial production which impacted all major regions and several of our end-use markets including our general industrial and automotive OEM coatings businesses,” said Michael H. McGarry, PPG chairman and CEO. “We continued to benefit from solid growth in several of our businesses, including aerospace and protective and marine coatings.

“We currently expect third quarter earnings per diluted share to be in the range of US$1.57 to US$1.67,” McGarry added. “We reaffirm our full year 2019 adjusted earnings-per-share growth of 7% to 10% and expect full-year sales growth of a low-single-digit percentage, both excluding currency translation impacts.”