International. The paints and coatings industry leader sets record sales for all of 2022 of approximately $17.7 billion, helped by organic growth of 8%.
Components of the year-over-year change in net sales included higher sales prices (+11%), lower sales volumes (-5%), divestment-related sales and settlement of operations in Russia (-1%) and unfavorable foreign currency translation (-5%).
"We continue to make progress in our approach to achieving full operating margin recovery, as year-over-year earnings improved in both segments despite more acute pandemic-related demand disruptions in China," said PPG President and CEO Tim Knavish.
"This earnings improvement was driven by aggregate sales price increases totaling 19% on a two-year cumulative basis, as we remained focused on mitigating the significant cumulative cost inflation incurred over the past two years," Knavish added.
Overall sales volumes declined 5% year-over-year as manufacturing activity slowed in most regions, "including Asia Pacific, where volumes fell by a low double-digit percentage mainly due to pandemic-related impacts in China."
"As anticipated, demand remained weak in global DIY architectural coatings. In Europe, aggregate industrial activity weakened sequentially and sales volumes fell by an average single-digit percentage; However, our quarterly operating profit in that region was consistent with year-ago levels, driven by solid pricing and cost management.
