PPG Industries Inc (PPG) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Angela, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the first quarter PPG earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Thank you.

早安.我叫安琪拉，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。此時此刻，我歡迎大家參加 PPG 第一季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）謝謝。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Jonathan Edwards, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

我現在想將會議交給投資者關係總監喬納森·愛德華茲 (Jonathan Edwards)。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, Angela, and good morning, everyone. This is Jonathan Edwards. We appreciate your continued interest in PPG and welcome you to our first quarter 2024 financial results conference call. Joining me on the call from PPG are Tim Knavish, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Vince Morales, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝你，安琪拉，大家早安。這是喬納森·愛德華茲。我們感謝您對 PPG 的持續關注，並歡迎您參加我們的 2024 年第一季財務業績電話會議。與我一起參加 PPG 電話會議的還有董事長兼執行長 Tim Knavish；以及高級副總裁兼財務長文斯莫拉萊斯 (Vince Morales)。

Our comments relate to the financial information released after U.S. equity markets closed on Thursday, April 18, 2024. We have posted detailed commentary and accompanying presentation slides on the Investor Center of our website, ppg.com. The slides are also available on the webcast site for this call and provide additional support to the opening comments Tim will make shortly. Following management's perspective on the company's results for the quarter, we will move to a Q&A session.

我們的評論涉及 2024 年 4 月 18 日星期四美國股市收盤後發布的財務資訊。這些幻燈片也可在本次電話會議的網路廣播網站上獲取，並為蒂姆很快將發表的開場評論提供額外支持。在管理層對公司本季業績的看法之後，我們將進入問答環節。

Both the prepared commentary and discussion during this call may contain forward-looking statements reflecting the company's current view of future events and their potential effect on PPG's operating and financial performance. These statements involve uncertainties and risks, which may cause actual results to differ. The company is under no obligation to provide subsequent updates to these forward-looking statements.

本次電話會議期間準備的評論和討論可能包含前瞻性陳述，反映公司當前對未來事件及其對 PPG 營運和財務表現的潛在影響的看法。這些陳述涉及不確定性和風險，可能導致實際結果有所不同。該公司沒有義務提供這些前瞻性陳述的後續更新。

The presentation also contains certain non-GAAP financial measures. The company has provided in the appendix of the presentation materials, which are available on our website, reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. For additional information, please refer to PPG's filings with the SEC.

此簡報也包含某些非公認會計準則財務指標。該公司在我們網站上提供的簡報資料附錄中提供了這些非公認會計原則財務指標與最直接可比較的公認會計原則財務指標的調節表。如需了解更多信息，請參閱 PPG 向 SEC 提交的文件。

And now let me introduce PPG Chairman and CEO, Tim Knavish.

現在讓我介紹 PPG 董事長兼執行長 Tim Knavish。

Thank you, Jonathan, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2024 earnings call. I'd like to start by providing a few highlights on our first quarter 2024 financial performance, and then I'll move to our outlook.

謝謝喬納森，大家早安。歡迎參加我們的 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。首先，我想介紹一下我們 2024 年第一季財務表現的一些要點，然後我將談談我們的展望。

The PPG team delivered sales of $4.3 billion, a solid sales performance despite a very challenging macro environment, and we delivered our sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year segment margin increases. This culminated in first quarter adjusted earnings per diluted share of $1.86, which is $0.02 above the midpoint of the range that we provided in January. This is also our second best Q1 adjusted EPS in the company's history, falling just $0.02 short of the record achieved during the early COVID surge in house paint sales.

PPG 團隊實現了 43 億美元的銷售額，儘管宏觀環境充滿挑戰，但銷售業績依然穩健，而且我們的部門利潤率連續第六個季度實現同比增長。最終，第一季調整後每股攤薄收益為 1.86 美元，比我們 1 月提供的範圍中點高出 0.02 美元。這也是我們公司歷史上第二好的第一季調整後每股收益，僅比新冠疫情早期房屋塗料銷售激增期間創下的紀錄低 0.02 美元。

Our first quarter adjusted EPS was once again up year-over-year, with moderating input costs and improving manufacturing performance mitigated by lower sales volumes and higher wage and benefit costs. As we indicated in January, we had a large customer win last year, Walmart, and a significant portion of lower volumes year-over-year was driven by this prior year $40 million load-in. We're also impacted by lower demand in Europe, including the effect of fewer selling days in March, stemming from an early Easter holiday this year. We also experienced ongoing tepid global industrial production.

我們第一季調整後每股盈餘再次較去年同期成長，由於銷售下降以及薪資和福利成本上升，投入成本下降，製造績效有所改善。正如我們在一月份所指出的，去年我們贏得了一個大客戶——沃爾瑪，而銷量同比下降的很大一部分是由前一年 4000 萬美元的加載造成的。我們也受到歐洲需求下降的影響，包括今年復活節假期提前導致 3 月份銷售天數減少的影響。我們也經歷了全球工業生產持續不溫不火的情況。

Adjusting for these year-over-year comparison items, volumes were nearly flat, continuing the underlying positive volume trajectory over the last 5 quarters. As I'll discuss in our outlook, I fully expect positive sales volumes in Q2. A benefit for us during the quarter was China where, despite a challenging general economy, our portfolio delivered double-digit organic sales growth, reflecting our strong mix of well-established businesses in the country.

在這些同比比較項目進行調整後，成交量幾乎持平，延續了過去 5 個季度的基本正成交量軌跡。正如我將在我們的展望中討論的那樣，我完全預計第二季的銷量將呈正增長。本季我們的一個受益點是中國，儘管總體經濟充滿挑戰，但我們的投資組合實現了兩位數的有機銷售成長，反映出我們在該國的成熟業務的強大組合。

For PPG, India also grew by double digits in the quarter. In addition, our commercial teams executed well and drove solid global organic sales growth in our aerospace, specialty coatings and materials and protective and marine coatings businesses.

對於 PPG 來說，印度本季也實現了兩位數的成長。此外，我們的商業團隊執行良好，推動了航空航太、特殊塗料和材料以及防護和船舶塗料業務的全球有機銷售的穩健成長。

Our selling prices were flat with positive pricing in the Performance segment offsetting lower pricing in the Industrial segment. First quarter pricing comparisons include a transitory unfavorable impact from European energy-related pricing indices that were put in place during a period of extremely high energy prices in that region in the first quarter of 2023. We experienced lower energy input costs in the quarter to offset this lower index-based pricing.

我們的銷售價格持平，性能部門的積極定價抵消了工業部門的較低定價。第一季定價比較包括歐洲能源相關定價指數的暫時不利影響，該指數是在 2023 年第一季該地區能源價格極高期間制定的。這種較低的基於指數的定價。

We expect total company selling prices to be slightly positive overall in 2024 as targeted structural selling price increases have been implemented in several of our Performance segment businesses, offsetting some index-based pricing contracts in the Industrial segment. Our operations have benefited from further improvement as we experienced stable upstream and downstream supply chains and customer order patterns.

我們預計 2024 年公司總銷售價格將略為正值，因為我們的多個績效部門業務已實施了有針對性的結構性銷售價格上漲，抵消了工業部門中一些基於指數的定價合約。由於上下游供應鏈和客戶訂單模式穩定，我們的營運狀況進一步改善。

From a supply perspective, the vast majority of our suppliers have sufficient or excess capacity as we continue to experience moderating input costs. This is noteworthy as we are just entering the peak buying period due to the overall seasonality of the paint industry. We also increased our growth-related investments, supporting initiatives that will deliver volume gains later this year and going forward.

從供應角度來看，隨著我們的投入成本持續下降，我們絕大多數供應商都擁有充足或過剩的產能。值得注意的是，由於塗料行業的整體季節性，我們剛剛進入購買高峰期。我們還增加了與成長相關的投資，支持將在今年稍後和未來實現銷售成長的舉措。

Building off of the full year 310 basis point improvement in total segment margins in 2023, further margin improvement remains a priority in 2024. This will be driven by stronger sales volumes as the year progresses, improved manufacturing productivity and moderating input cost from historical highs. Specifically on manufacturing productivity, our improved operating cadence will be more financially impactful during our peak seasonal quarters as we deliver additional volume growth.

在 2023 年全年部門總利潤率提高 310 個基點的基礎上，進一步提高利潤率仍然是 2024 年的優先事項。特別是在製造生產力方面，隨著我們實現額外的銷售成長，我們改進的營運節奏將在旺季季度產生更大的財務影響。

In the first quarter, we delivered on our margin improvement commitment with the Industrial segment margins improving by 100 basis points versus prior year, and the Performance Coatings businesses margins were also up by about 40 basis points as favorable pricing and moderating input costs were mitigated by lower volumes and higher wage inflation.

第一季度，我們兌現了利潤率改善的承諾，工業部門的利潤率比去年同期提高了100 個基點，高性能塗料業務的利潤率也提高了約40 個基點，因為有利的定價和適度的投入成本得到了緩解銷量下降和工資通膨上升。

From a cash perspective, we expect another year of excellent cash flow, and our balance sheet remains strong, including lower inventories year-over-year. We'll continue to follow our legacy of utilizing our strong cash flow and balance sheet to create shareholder value.

從現金角度來看，我們預計今年現金流將繼續保持強勁，我們的資產負債表仍然強勁，包括庫存同比下降。我們將繼續秉承利用強大的現金流和資產負債表創造股東價值的傳統。

In the first quarter, we repurchased approximately $150 million of PPG stock, reflecting our commitment to use excess cash to create shareholder value. Additionally, yesterday, our Board of Directors increased our share buyback authorization by an additional $2.5 billion, bringing our total share repurchase authorization to approximately $3.4 billion.

第一季度，我們回購了約 1.5 億美元的 PPG 股票，反映了我們利用多餘現金創造股東價值的承諾。此外，昨天，我們的董事會將我們的股票回購授權額外增加了 25 億美元，使我們的股票回購授權總額達到約 34 億美元。

I'm pleased with the progress we've made on our enterprise growth initiatives. We executed strong growth from our -- from selling our innovative products into the mobility space and continued to further utilize our world-class distribution of 5,200 concessionaire locations in Mexico to drive additional non-architectural coatings products into one of the world's fastest-growing economies.

我對我們在企業成長計劃方面取得的進展感到高興。我們透過將我們的創新產品銷售到行動領域實現了強勁成長，並繼續進一步利用我們在墨西哥的5,200 個特​​許經營點的世界級分銷，將更多非建築塗料產品推向世界上增長最快的經濟體之一。

In automotive refinish, customer adoption of our industry-leading digital tools increased, yielding nearly 400 additional net body shop wins. These digital tools include our LINQ services and MOONWALK mixing machines, both of which are best-in-class and are focused on improving body shop productivity. To date, we've sold over 2,000 MOONWALK mixing machines and approximately 2,700 LINQ subscriptions.

在汽車修補漆領域，客戶對我們領先業界的數位工具的採用有所增加，從而為車身修理廠帶來了近 400 家額外的淨勝利。這些數位工具包括我們的 LINQ 服務和 MOONWALK 混合機，這兩種工具都是一流的，專注於提高車身車間的生產力。迄今為止，我們已售出 2,000 多台 MOONWALK 混音機和約 2,700 份 LINQ 訂閱。

We announced strategic reviews of the architectural U.S. and Canada business and the global silica product business in the first quarter. Strategically, we are driving this portfolio optimization with a goal of transforming to a higher-growth, higher-margin company. As an example, excluding the architectural coatings business in the U.S. and Canada, Performance Coatings segment margins would be an average of 200 to 300 basis points higher than the last several years. We'll communicate the determination of a path forward on these strategic assessments when appropriate with our target of no later than the third quarter.

我們宣布第一季對美國和加拿大建築業務以及全球二氧化矽產品業務進行策略性審查。從策略上講，我們正在推動投資組合優化，目標是轉型為更高成長、更高利潤的公司。例如，不包括美國和加拿大的建築塗料業務，高性能塗料部門的利潤率將比過去幾年平均高出 200 至 300 個基點。我們將在適當的時候傳達這些戰略評估的前進道路的決定，我們的目標是不遲於第三季。

Now I'll comment on our second quarter outlook. We expect to deliver adjusted Q2 EPS between $2.42 and $2.52 per share, which is at midpoint would be 10% higher than our previous record quarterly EPS. While we anticipate global industrial production to remain at low absolute levels and demand to be uneven by geography, we expect our overall second quarter sales volumes to be positive by a low single-digit percentage, aided by organic growth in aerospace, protective and marine and our share gains in packaging coatings.

現在我將評論我們的第二季前景。我們預計第二季調整後每股收益將在 2.42 美元至 2.52 美元之間，中間值將比我們先前創紀錄的季度每股收益高出 10%。雖然我們預計全球工業生產將保持在較低的絕對水平，並且需求因地區而異，但我們預計第二季的整體銷售將出現低個位數百分比的正值，這得益於航空航太、防護和海洋以及我們在包裝塗料領域的份額有所增長。

We project continuing solid growth from our businesses in China, our third-largest country for sales, led by our automotive OEM business where our strong positioning with electric vehicle OEM producers will drive further sales. Additionally, we expect to deliver further sales growth in Mexico, our second-largest country for sales, leveraging our strong position across many businesses as well as our world-class distribution network.

我們預計，在我們的汽車 OEM 業務的帶動下，我們在中國的業務將持續穩健成長，中國是我們的第三大銷售國家，我們在電動車 OEM 生產商中的強大地位將推動進一步的銷售。此外，我們預計將利用我們在許多業務中的強大地位以及我們世界一流的分銷網絡，在我們的第二大銷售國家墨西哥實現進一步的銷售成長。

We are confident that PPG's unique geographic profile with strong and growing positions in China, Mexico and India, along with stabilization and eventually modest growth in Europe and the continued improvements in the U.S., will support PPG's consistent sales volume growth as we move forward.

我們相信，PPG 獨特的地理分佈，在中國、墨西哥和印度的地位強勁且不斷增長，加上歐洲的穩定並最終溫和增長，以及美國的持續改善，將支持PPG 在我們前進的過程中實現銷量的持續增長。

We anticipate overall company selling prices to be flat to slightly positive in the second quarter as the impact of index-based contracts in our Industrial segment will be offset by selling price increases in our Performance Coatings segment. There's still some unfavorable pricing impact in offsetting energy input cost benefits from prior year European energy surcharges, but it's less than the first quarter.

我們預計第二季公司整體銷售價格將持平至小幅上漲，因為工業部門基於指數的合約的影響將被高性能塗料部門銷售價格的上漲所抵消。在抵銷去年歐洲能源附加費帶來的能源投入成本效益方面，仍存在一些不利的定價影響，但幅度小於第一季。

With regard to commodity raw materials, supply remains ample, and we will continue to realize benefits from moderating input costs. We expect mid-single-digit percentage raw material deflation in the second quarter following the realization of high single-digit percentage decreases in Q1. We're watching oil price and feedstock volatility, and we will manage any impact accordingly, although we expect that recent oil price increases will be absorbed upstream.

大宗原料供應依然充足，投入成本下降的效益將持續顯現。我們預計，繼第一季實現高個位數百分比下降之後，第二季度原材料通縮百分比將達到中等個位數百分比。我們正在關注油價和原料的波動，並將相應地管理任何影響，儘管我們預計近期油價上漲將被上游吸收。

Looking at the remainder of 2024, we remain confident that we will deliver positive sales volumes in each remaining quarter in 2024, including our growth in China and India. We'll also execute on our more than $270 million and growing order backlog in aerospace, driving further growth in our well-positioned businesses in Mexico and driving expanded benefits of our key growth initiatives across electric vehicle, auto parts, powder coatings and various digital solutions.

展望 2024 年剩餘時間，我們仍有信心在 2024 年剩餘每季實現正銷量，包括在中國和印度的成長。我們還將執行航空航太領域超過2.7 億美元且不斷增長的積壓訂單，推動我們在墨西哥定位良好的業務的進一步增長，並推動我們在電動車、汽車零件、粉末塗料和各種數位領域的關鍵成長計劃的擴大效益。

PPG remains focused on our enterprise growth initiatives to drive higher sales volumes and fully capitalize on our technical and service capabilities. We'll drive further improvement of our operating margins, aided by sales volume growth leverage and our initiatives to drive manufacturing productivity following several years of supply chain and other disruptions. And we will diligently manage our costs and continue to execute against previously approved restructuring actions.

PPG 仍然專注於我們的企業成長計劃，以推動更高的銷售並充分利用我們的技術和服務能力。在銷售成長槓桿和我們在經歷了幾年的供應鏈和其他中斷之後提高製造生產力的舉措的幫助下，我們將進一步提高我們的營業利潤率。我們將努力管理成本，並繼續執行先前批准的重組行動。

Lastly, we enter the second quarter of 2024 with a strong balance sheet, which provides us with flexibility for further shareholder value creation. Thank you to our more than 50,000 employees around the world who partner with our customers every day to drive mutual success by providing best-in-class paints, coatings, specialty materials, including productivity-enhancing and sustainable solutions.

最後，我們以強勁的資產負債表進入 2024 年第二季度，這為我們進一步創造股東價值提供了靈活性。感謝我們在世界各地的 50,000 多名員工，他們每天與我們的客戶合作，透過提供一流的油漆、塗料、特殊材料（包括提高生產力和可持續的解決方案）來推動共同成功。

Thank you for your continued confidence in PPG. This concludes our prepared remarks, and now would you please open the lines for questions?

感謝您對 PPG 的持續信任。我們準備好的演講到此結束，現在請您開始提問嗎？

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Ghansham Panjabi from Baird.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Baird 的 Ghansham Panjabi。

Tim, I know you have a lot going on across the portfolio by business and also by geography, but your guidance embeds quite a bit of an earnings improvement during the back half of the year on a year-over-year basis. So I guess just on that, can you just lay out the specifics that underlay your confidence for that dynamic to play out, especially with some of the upstream input costs such as energy trending higher?

提姆，我知道您的投資組合按業務和地理劃分都有很多進展，但您的指導包含了今年下半年盈利同比的相當大的改善。因此，我想就此而言，您能否列出一些具體細節，以支撐您對這種動態發揮的信心，特別是在一些上游投入成本（例如能源）趨於走高的情況下？

Yes, sure, Ghansham. Thanks for the question. I'll tell you how I'm feeling about the full year guide here. We have a bold 10% EPS growth target off of a strong record year last year and on a very challenging planet. But we've got strong reasons to believe and we're confident in that.

是的，當然，甘沙姆。謝謝你的提問。我會在這裡告訴你我對全年指南的感受。在去年創下的強勁記錄的基礎上，在一個充滿挑戰的星球上，我們制定了大膽的 10% 每股收益成長目標。但我們有充分的理由相信這一點，並且對此充滿信心。

First of all, we've proven over the last several quarters what we can do on margin and cash. That gives us optionality. We believe that our strong volume momentum will continue. We went from minus 3%, minus 2%, minus 1%, now essentially flat without the one-timers. We're expecting positive volumes the rest of the year. We've -- I'm satisfied with where pricing is. We continue to get price in Performance. We've got some indexing offsets in Industrial, but I'm confident in that.

首先，過去幾季我們已經證明了我們在保證金和現金方面的能力。這給了我們選擇權。我們相信強勁的銷售勢頭將持續下去。我們從負 3%、負 2%、負 1%，現在在沒有一次性產品的情況下基本上持平。我們預計今年剩餘時間銷售將呈正成長。我們——我對定價感到滿意。我們繼續以性能定價。我們在工業領域有一些索引抵消，但我對此充滿信心。

We've got manufacturing momentum. We're starting to deliver on the productivity initiatives as well as some incremental volume leverage in the portfolio. And we're starting from a position of strength in a number of our countries and businesses, aerospace, Mexico, China, India, PMC, automotive.

我們有製造動力。我們開始實施生產力計劃以及投資組合中的一些增量數量槓桿。我們在許多國家和企業、航空航太、墨西哥、中國、印度、PMC、汽車等領域都處於優勢地位。

We've got some share gains in the process of being launched across packaging, refinish, industrial coatings. We've got our enterprise growth strategy initiatives, and we do have some optionality again with capital deployment. So we feel good about the ramp between Q1 to Q2 and the second half of the year, Ghansham.

我們在包裝、修補漆、工業塗料領域的推出過程中獲得了一些份額成長。我們已經制定了企業成長策略計劃，並且在資本部署方面我們確實有一些選擇。因此，我們對第一季到第二季以及今年下半年之間的成長感到滿意，Ghansham。

Yes. And Ghansham, this is Vince. Just as we talked, a strong balance sheet in our full year guide, we don't have any further cash deployment baked in at this point. As we alluded to in our press release, we did purchase about $150 million of shares in the first quarter, but our full year guide does not assume additional cash deployment at this point in the remainder of the year. We'll make those decisions on a real-time basis.

是的。甘沙姆，這是文斯。正如我們所說，我們的全年指南中的資產負債表強勁，但我們目前沒有任何進一步的現金部署。正如我們在新聞稿中提到的，我們確實在第一季購買了約 1.5 億美元的股票，但我們的全年指南並不假設在今年剩餘時間裡會進行額外的現金部署。我們將實時做出這些決定。

The next question comes from the line of John McNulty with BMO.

下一個問題來自 BMO 的 John McNulty。

So maybe on the price versus raws dynamic, I guess, can you speak to whether you expect to see your raw material basket down from 1Q to 2Q? And then on the pricing side, if we take out the indexing, which really should be kind of a net neutral, what portion of your business do you expect to see real pricing as we're pushing forward? Because it does sound like you've got a number of initiatives to push further price. So can you help us to think about those things?

因此，我想，也許就價格與原材料的動態而言，您能否談談您是否預計原材料籃子從第一季下降到第二季度？然後在定價方面，如果我們去掉指數（實際上應該是淨中性的），那麼隨著我們的推進，您預計您業務的哪一部分會看到真正的定價？因為聽起來你確實有很多措施來進一步推高價格。那你能幫助我們思考這些事情嗎？

Yes, let me just do the math. This is Vince, John. Let me do the math on the pricing. Again, we had -- in Q1 on a year-over-year basis, European energy surcharge is really reflecting the high cost of natural gas in Europe last year. That was about $15 million on a year-over-year basis. As you alluded to, John, that was completely offset, an exact pass-through in our cost of goods sold.

是的，讓我算一下。這是文斯，約翰。讓我算一下定價。同樣，我們在第一季與去年同期相比，歐洲能源附加費確實反映了去年歐洲天然氣的高成本。年比約 1500 萬美元。約翰，正如您所提到的，這完全抵消了，這是我們銷售商品成本的確切轉嫁。

But if you're looking myopically at the price line, that's about $15 million, and we have about half of that carryover in Q2. So $6 million, $7 million in Q2, we still have an energy surcharge impact. Excluding that, I would exclude that as what would be our structural pricing.

但如果你短視地看待價格線，這大約是 1500 萬美元，而我們在第二季度有大約一半的結轉。因此，第二季的 600 萬美元、700 萬美元，我們仍受到能源附加費的影響。排除這一點，我會將其排除在我們的結構性定價之外。

And Tim is going to answer the raws question.

蒂姆將回答原始問題。

Yes. John, thanks for the question. As far as progression from Q1 to Q2, Q1, we did say they were down high single digits, which was better than our forecast of mid-single digits. Q2, we believe, down the mid-single digits. And we're confident enough now to issue full year guide on raws being down in that low-single digits to mid-single digits for full year '24. So we've got better visibility now into what we believe that price/raws will look like for the rest of the year.

是的。約翰，謝謝你的提問。就從第一季到第二季、第一季的進展而言，我們確實表示它們下降了高個位數，這比我們對中個位數的預測要好。我們認為，第二季將下降中個位數。我們現在有足夠的信心發布全年指南，說明 24 年全年原物料價格將下降到低個位數到中個位數。因此，我們現在可以更好地了解今年剩餘時間的價格/原材料情況。

The next question comes from the line of Michael Sison with Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自邁克爾·西森與富國銀行的對話。

Nice start to the year. You talked about being confident in turning the quarter in volume growth in 2Q. Maybe give us a little bit of color on how much market growth you need or macro help and how much really just comes from your execution and maybe just some areas of growth that you're seeing in your end markets.

今年開局不錯。您談到了對扭轉第二季銷售成長的信心。也許可以告訴我們您需要多少市場成長或宏觀幫助，以及有多少真正來自您的執行，也許只是您在終端市場中看到的一些成長領域。

Yes, Mike, first of all, it's based on a number of factors. One is the overall trend of the company, particularly when you adjust for -- you got to take the Walmart load-in out. And when you adjust for that, we've been ramping. So that's one part of it.

是的，麥克，首先，這是基於許多因素。一是公司的整體趨勢，特別是當你進行調整時——你必須取消沃爾瑪的加載。當你對此進行調整時，我們就一直在努力。這就是其中的一部分。

Second is we are seeing a number of the share gain wins across some of our businesses from last year starting to launch in Q2 in industrial, in refinish and in packaging primarily. And we've also -- we're only 16 or whatever days into the month here. And while that's just 1/6 of the quarter, we're comfortable with what we're seeing on orders and shipments thus far in the quarter. So we're comfortable in saying that we'll be positive volume for Q2.

其次，我們看到去年第二季開始在工業、修補漆和包裝領域推出的一些業務取得了一些份額成長。而且我們還——我們這個月只有 16 天或其他什麼天。雖然這只是本季度的 1/6，但我們對本季迄今的訂單和出貨情況感到滿意。因此，我們可以放心地說，第二季的銷售量將為正值。

The next question comes from the line of Duffy Fischer with Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自達菲費雪 (Duffy Fischer) 與高盛 (Goldman Sachs) 的對話。

Two questions off the buyback. One, I just want to clarify, so Vince, in the annual guide, you're saying that there's no more buybacks that you're not even rolling through the $150 million per quarter into that annual guidance number.

關於回購的兩個問題。一，我只是想澄清一下，文斯，在年度指南中，你說沒有更多的回購，你甚至沒有將每季 1.5 億美元轉入年度指導數字。

And then maybe for Tim, if you look at the $150 million run rate that would take you over 5 years to eat through the program that you've now got available, how should we think about that buyback ramping going forward? What level should we put into our models?

然後，也許對蒂姆來說，如果你看看 1.5 億美元的運行速度，需要你 5 年多的時間才能完成你現在可用的計劃，我們應該如何考慮未來的回購增加？我們應該將什麼等級放入我們的模型中？

Duffy, this is Vince. You stated it properly. We obviously purchased $150 million in the first quarter. That will obviously be impactful to the financials. We have nothing further assumed in our full year guide for the balance of the year.

達菲，這是文斯。你說得對。顯然我們在第一季買了 1.5 億美元。這顯然會對財務產生影響。我們在今年剩餘時間的全年指南中沒有做出任何進一步的假設。

The way that I'm thinking about the additional authorization that we got from our Board yesterday is really consistent with what we've done and said over the last number of years and quarters. We said that, obviously, we're going to pay our dividend. Obviously, we're going to do what we need to do with the CapEx to grow our businesses organically. We paid down all of our high-cost debt last year. And we've consistently said that in the absence of shareholder value-creating acquisitions, we're not going to let the cash sit on our balance sheet. And we did that in Q4, we did it in Q1.

我對昨天從董事會獲得的額外授權的看法與我們在過去幾年和幾個季度所做的和所說的確實一致。我們說過，顯然我們將支付股息。顯然，我們將利用資本支出來做我們需要做的事情，以有機地發展我們的業務。去年我們還清了所有高成本債務。我們一直表示，在沒有為股東創造價值的收購的情況下，我們不會讓現金留在我們的資產負債表上。我們在第四季度和第一季都做到了這一點。

So we're really sticking with that mantra. The way to think about magnitude going forward will depend on all of those factors, what's our actual leverage sitting at versus what we see in our acquisition pipeline after we've done those kind of organic things of dividend and CapEx.

所以我們真的堅持這個口號。考慮未來規模的方式將取決於所有這些因素，在我們完成股息和資本支出等有機事情之後，我們的實際槓桿率與我們在收購管道中看到的槓桿率是多少。

The next question comes from the line of David Begleiter from Deutsche Bank.

下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 David Begleiter。

Tim and Vince, in U.S. architectural, have you seen any disruption since your announcement in late February? What's the level of interest in these assets? And what's, do you think, the most likely outcome of this review and process?

Tim 和 Vince，美國建築界人士，自二月底宣布這一消息以來，你們是否看到過任何干擾？對這些資產的興趣程度如何？您認為這次審查和流程最有可能的結果是什麼？

David, it's Tim. We had a very detailed and thoughtful communications plan ahead of making the announcement on February 26 that we executed very shortly after that press release went out and have continued to execute. And we've seen very minimal, if any, disruption. There's chatter, but we've got really good talk plans out there. We're engaging our key customers. We're engaging our key -- obviously, our employees. We're engaging our owners, as you know. So a very minimal disruption to the business.

大衛，是提姆。在 2 月 26 日發佈公告之前，我們制定了非常詳細且深思熟慮的溝通計劃，我們在新聞稿發布後不久就執行了該計劃，並繼續執行。我們看到的干擾（如果有的話）也非常小。雖然有閒聊，但我們已經有了非常好的談話計畫。我們正在吸引我們的主要客戶。我們正在調動我們的關鍵——顯然是我們的員工。如您所知，我們正在與我們的業主合作。因此對業務的干擾非常小。

The second question, we expected strong interest because of the strength of the brands and the strength of the assets in our architectural U.S.-Canada business. I'm pleased to say the interest is even higher than what we expected. So that's -- we feel good right now about where we are.

第二個問題，由於我們的美國-加拿大建築業務的品牌實力和資產實力，我們預計會有濃厚的興趣。我很高興地說，人們的興趣甚至比我們預期的還要高。所以，我們現在對自己所處的位置感覺良好。

As far as the which likely outcome, David, until numbers start coming across the desk and we can start looking at what's best for long-term shareholder value creation, it's a bit early. But we want to be definitive on our path forward in Q3. So we'll have a much better view of what this structure might look like in another quarter or so, David.

至於可能的結果，大衛，直到數據開始出現在桌面上，我們才能開始尋找最有利於長期股東價值創造的方法，現在還為時過早。但我們希望在第三季明確我們的前進道路。因此，大衛，再過一個季度左右，我們將對這個結構有一個更好的了解。

The next question comes from the line of Chris Parkinson with Wolfe Research.

下一個問題來自沃爾夫研究中心的克里斯·帕金森。

Tim, you've obviously been at the company a long time, and you're making some pretty dramatic moves in the first 6 quarters. When you take a step back away from the North American architectural and the specialty reviews and you look at your remaining businesses across Performance and Industrial, just how confident are you versus even, let's say, a couple of quarters ago last year, however you want to characterize it, how confident are you that those remaining businesses are the best-in-class R&D innovators and will ultimately render above-market growth in the respective end markets over the next year or 2, I mean, or perhaps even a little longer? Just has your confidence changed in the portfolio positively or negatively?

提姆，你顯然已經在公司工作了很長時間，而且你在前 6 個季度做出了一些非常戲劇性的舉動。當您從北美建築和專業評論中退一步，看看您在性能和工業方面的剩餘業務時，您對甚至比去年幾個季度前的信心有多大，無論您想要什麼為了描述它，您對那些剩下的企業是一流的研發創新者有多大信心，並且最終將在未來一兩年甚至更長的時間內在各自的終端市場實現高於市場的成長？您對投資組合的信心發生了正面還是負面的變化？

Chris, thanks for your very polite way of saying that I'm old at the beginning there. I feel more comfortable now than ever that we are building a portfolio here at PPG that will have a higher growth profile and a higher margin profile.

克里斯，謝謝你一開始就非常有禮貌地表示我已經老了。我現在比以往任何時候都感到更加放心，因為我們正在 PPG 建立一個具有更高成長和更高利潤率的投資組合。

As you alluded to, we did what I would call just pruning last year of some smaller parts of our portfolio that we really did not see being consistent with our enterprise growth strategy and our performance targets. We did that last year. Obviously, Q1 this year, I announced 2 pretty sizable ones.

正如您所提到的，去年我們對我們的投資組合中一些較小的部分進行了我所說的修剪，我們確實認為這些部分與我們的企業成長策略和績效目標不一致。我們去年就這麼做了。顯然，今年第一季度，我宣布了兩個相當大的項目。

Going forward, at least today, you shouldn't count on us coming out tomorrow or any time soon with another very sizable divestiture. So I'm comfortable with what's in the portfolio in -- at a high level. We will continue, however, to prove -- or I'm sorry, to prune on a smaller scale. And one of our mantras going forward is that every business has to earn the right to stay in the portfolio. That means, one, from a performance outlook standpoint; but two, consistent with our very focused enterprise growth strategy.

展望未來，至少今天，你不應該指望我們明天或很快就會進行另一次大規模的資產剝離。因此，我對高水準的投資組合中的內容感到滿意。然而，我們將繼續證明——或者抱歉，進行更小規模的修剪。我們未來的口號之一是，每個企業都必須贏得留在投資組合中的權利。這意味著，一，從業績前景的角度來看；但有兩個，符合我們非常專注的企業成長策略。

I also want to add that when we talk about portfolio, Chris, it's not just about the pruning and divestitures. But we are also intending to be continued acquirers going forward just on a very focused basis for those things that meet both our performance outlook and our enterprise growth strategy.

我還想補充一點，克里斯，當我們談論投資組合時，這不僅僅是修剪和剝離。但我們也打算繼續成為收購者，專注於那些既符合我們的業績前景又符合我們的企業成長策略的事情。

Yes. And Chris, this is Vince. If you think about the remaining portfolio, the businesses, we have the right to win in the businesses, whether it be on a regional basis or on a global basis. As you alluded to in your question, most of these businesses have strong technology associated with them.

是的。克里斯，這是文斯。如果你考慮剩下的投資組合和業務，我們有權利在這些業務中獲勝，無論是在區域基礎上還是在全球基礎上。正如您在問題中提到的，這些企業中的大多數都擁有與之相關的強大技術。

We've talked earlier in our comments about the margin profile, if absent these businesses that we're doing a strategic review on, which again would be higher on a pro forma basis. So again, the right to win, good margins, good customer pull, those are the things that we're focused on with respect to the portfolio.

我們之前在評論中談到了利潤率狀況，如果沒有我們正在進行策略審查的這些業務，預計利潤率將會更高。再說一遍，獲勝的權利、良好的利潤、良好的客戶吸引力，這些都是我們在投資組合方面關注的重點。

The next question comes from the line of John Roberts with Mizuho.

下一個問題來自約翰·羅伯茨和瑞穗的關係。

Another coatings firm has suggested that you might separate North American architectural into Pro versus DIY and deal with them separately. Could you comment on that?

另一家塗料公司建議您可以將北美建築分為 Pro 和 DIY，並分別處理。你能否對此發表評論？

John, there's a lot of theories out there from a lot of different parties. As I mentioned, the interest level that we've seen coming in is very high, higher than we expected. And not all of those parties have the same view of what we should do and what this might look like at the end.

約翰，很多不同的面向都有很多理論。正如我所提到的，我們看到的興趣程度非常高，高於我們的預期。對於我們應該做什麼以及最終會是什麼樣子，並非所有這些各方都有相同的看法。

So my only comment would be everyone should be confident that we said we were casting a wide net intentionally. Everybody should be confident that we will look at every option that comes in and weigh them and do what's best for shareholder value, period. It's a little early to go beyond that, again because nothing -- no numbers have hit our desk yet.

所以我唯一的評論是每個人都應該相信我們說我們是故意撒大網的。每個人都應該相信，我們會考慮並權衡每一個選擇，並做出最有利於股東價值的事情。現在超越這一點還為時過早，因為我們還沒有收到任何數據。

The next question comes from the line of Patrick Cunningham with Citigroup.

下一個問題來自花旗集團的 Patrick Cunningham。

On the higher CapEx range for the year, what are the areas you're contemplating additional growth investment? And should we expect this to be a reasonable CapEx base for the next few years?

在今年較高的資本支出範圍內，您正在考慮在哪些領域進行額外的成長投資？我們是否應該期望這成為​​未來幾年合理的資本支出基礎？

Yes, Patrick, this is Vince. A couple of things. One, we did have some capital spending spillover from last year into this year, just things we didn't get to at the tail end of last year. So our Q1 capital, a little higher. We're also looking at additional growth-related capital spending in Mexico and also in India.

是的，派崔克，這是文斯。有幾件事。第一，從去年到今年，我們確實有一些資本支出溢出，只是去年年底沒有達到的效果。所以我們第一季的資本稍微高一點。我們也正在考慮墨西哥和印度與成長相關的額外資本支出。

But if you look -- and we said this on our Q1 call or our year-end call as well, we're going to be somewhere in that 2.5% to 3% over the midterm. We still have some additional capital last year, this year, and we're catching up from COVID. So again, we're a little bit higher. We recognized that in our January call. But again, over the midterm, you should expect us to return to our normal range.

但如果你看一下——我們在第一季電話會議或年終電話會議上也說過這一點，我們將在中期達到 2.5% 到 3% 的水平。去年、今年我們仍然有一些額外的資本，我們正在迎頭趕上新冠疫情的影響。再說一遍，我們的水平有點高。我們在一月份的電話會議中認識到了這一點。但同樣，在中期，你應該期望我們回到正常範圍。

The next question comes from the line of Frank Mitsch with Fermium Research, LLC.

下一個問題來自 Fermium Research, LLC 的 Frank Mitsch。

The LLC portion is very important, so I appreciate that. Listen, I know that some of the growth you're expecting in the next 3 quarters for '24 are tied to higher operating rates, volume improvement, productivity gains. But as you also indicated, you're also spending more money on growth initiatives and so forth. How do we think about the interplay between those 2 in terms of millions of dollars or EPS, et cetera? Any way that you can kind of frame the interplay between those 2?

LLC 部分非常重要，所以我很欣賞這一點。聽著，我知道您對 24 世紀未來 3 個季度的成長的部分預期與更高的開工率、產量的提高和生產力的提高有關。但正如您也指出的那樣，您還在成長計劃等方面投入了更多資金。我們如何看待這兩者之間在數百萬美元或每股盈餘等方面的相互作用？有什麼辦法可以建構這兩者之間的相互作用嗎？

Yes. Well, Mr. Mitsch, this is Tim. The net-net of the growth that we're expecting versus the investments in growth that we're making, net-net, we're expecting that to deliver the -- at midpoint, 10% EPS growth for the year. Those investments that we -- we didn't just start making those in Q1, we started making those last year, and a number of those will start to actually hit the P&L now coming here in Q2, Q3 and Q4.

是的。好吧，米奇先生，這是提姆。我們預期的淨成長與我們正在進行的成長投資相比，我們預計今年的每股盈餘將實現 10% 的中位數成長。我們不只是在第一季開始進行這些投資，我們從去年開始進行這些投資，其中一些投資將開始真正影響損益表，現在將在第二季、第三季和第四季進行。

Beyond that, Vince, I don't know if you want to add any details.

除此之外，文斯，我不知道你是否想添加任何細節。

No. These are -- these investments are things such as digital, as Tim alluded to, with respect to our consumer-facing businesses, also with respect to refinish where we're building out digital tools that increase our customer liaisons. We have other investments in Comex where we're delivering -- we've had multiple quarters of record earnings.

不。我們在紐約商品交易所 (Comex) 也進行了其他投資，我們已經在多個季度實現了創紀錄的利潤。

Our protective business, we're adding some capacity, strong protective business. We still have some infrastructure spending that has not yet hit the books, but we're building in anticipation of that. And even in aerospace where we have a backlog that we -- that continues to grow, we're adding some capacity there to try to work at that backlog and get to it in a much more expedient manner.

我們的防護業務，我們正在增加一些產能，強大的防護業務。我們還有一些基礎設施支出尚未入賬，但我們正在為此進行建設。即使在航空航太領域，我們的積壓訂單仍在不斷增長，我們也在增加一些能力，以嘗試處理積壓的訂單並以更方便的方式處理它。

So those are examples. If you look at our overheads up, that's something where some of the growth spending is a result of -- that overheads up is a result of that growth spending.

這些都是例子。如果你看看我們的管理費用上升，你會發現一些成長支出是成長支出的結果──管理費用上升是成長支出的結果。

The next question comes from the line of Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自文森安德魯斯與摩根士丹利的對話。

Can we talk a bit about refinish? And it would be helpful if you just could level set us in terms of where volumes are now versus pre-COVID levels. And I'm just -- what I'm trying to understand on a go-forward basis, you're talking about volume declines for 1Q and 2Q against very difficult comps in the year-ago period. So is the assessment that we've normalized volumetrically post-COVID? And if that's the case, what should the algorithm for refinish be in terms of volume and price on a go-forward basis from here?

我們可以談談修補漆嗎？如果您能根據現在的交易量與新冠疫情之前的水平對我們進行調整，將會很有幫助。我只是 - 我試圖在未來的基礎上理解，你談論的是第一季和第二季的銷量下降，而去年同期的比較非常困難。那麼，疫情過後我們的評估是否已經以數量標準化了呢？如果是這樣的話，從現在開始，在數量和價格方面，修補的演算法應該是什麼？

Yes. Vincent, Tim here. Thanks for the question. Let me kill the second part first, the easy part. Price, you should expect us to continue to execute on price the way we always have in refinish because the value proposition of the paint inside the can plus all the tools and service outside the can continues to improve. And it's such an important part of the repair, but a fairly low-cost part of the repair. So we'll continue to execute on price.

是的。文森特，提姆在這裡。謝謝你的提問。讓我先結束第二部分，即簡單的部分。價格，您應該期望我們繼續按照我們在修補漆方面一貫的方式執行價格，因為罐內油漆以及罐外所有工具和服務的價值主張不斷提高。這是維修中非常重要的一部分，但維修成本相當低。因此我們將繼續執行價格。

In volume, Q1 was lower than we expected. And if you saw the claims data for March that just came out for the U.S., in particular, we're quite a bit lower than really the industry expected. The whole refinish industry loves an ice storm down in the Southeast U.S. or Southwest U.S., where they're not quite ready to handle with an ice storm, and it was a pretty mild winter, particularly down south. And so the claims in March were down significantly. That affected Q1 and, frankly, will also carry in and affect Q2, which is why we're -- partly why we're saying mid -- down mid-single digits on sales for Q2. The other factor in Q2 is we did have a very strong Q2 last year.

從銷售來看，第一季低於我們的預期。如果你看到剛公佈的美國 3 月失業救濟數據，你會發現我們的數據比業界的實際預期要低很多。整個修補漆行業都喜歡美國東南部或美國西南部的冰暴，他們還沒有準備好應對冰暴，而且那是一個相當溫和的冬天，尤其是在南部。因此，三月的申領失業救濟金人數大幅下降。這影響了第一季度，坦白說，也將影響第二季度，這就是為什麼我們——部分原因是我們說第二季度的銷售額下降了中個位數。第二季的另一個因素是我們去年的第二季確實非常強勁。

That said, I've spoken, and Chancey, who runs that business for us, has spoken to our key end users here in the last weeks, and they're all saying the same thing about Q1. But we are all expecting, I would say, a return to more normal growth in the second half of 2024. So we just got to get through Q2.

也就是說，我已經說過了，為我們經營該業務的 Chancey 在過去幾週也與我們的主要最終用戶進行了交談，他們都對第一季說了同樣的話。但我想說的是，我們都預計 2024 年下半年將恢復到更正常的成長。

To your question on industry versus 2019, set March aside from a claims standpoint because it's a bit unique, other than March, we're down low-single digits, mid-single digits versus pre-COVID as an industry. But we are seeing things like miles driven ticking up. We are seeing more and more return to downtown areas, if you want to call it that.

對於你關於行業與2019 年的問題，從索賠的角度來看，把3 月份放在一邊，因為它有點獨特，除了3 月份之外，我們作為一個行業，與新冠疫情之前相比，出現了低個位數、中個位數的下降。但我們看到諸如行駛里程之類的事情在增加。我們看到越來越多的人返回市中心地區（如果你想這樣稱呼的話）。

So long and short of it, down a bit in Q1, down a bit in Q2 because of one-timers here. From a weather standpoint and a claims standpoint, confident in the second half of the year and confident for the long-term health of this business. And that's if we don't gain share, but we are continuing to gain share through our digital tools, as I mentioned in my opening remarks.

這麼長和短，第一季下降了一點，第二季下降了一點，因為這裡有一次性的。從天氣和理賠的角度來看，我們對下半年充滿信心，並對這項業務的長期健康發展充滿信心。如果我們沒有獲得份額，但正如我在開場白中提到的那樣，我們將繼續透過我們的數位工具獲得份額。

Yes. And Vincent, this is Vince. Just a point of clarification. The claims data Tim referred to, these are industry claims, which are down again low double digits. The current reading was down low double digits for the month of March. So these are industry [collision] claims that set the entire industry.

是的。文森特，這是文斯。只是澄清一點。蒂姆提到的索賠數據是行業索賠，再次下降了低兩位數。三月份的當前讀數下降了兩位數。因此，這些是影響整個產業的產業[衝突]主張。

Yes. Prior to March, they were down low single digits.

是的。在三月之前，它們的跌幅為低個位數。

The next question comes from the line of Stephen Byrne with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

下一個問題來自美國銀行美林銀行的史蒂芬‧伯恩 (Stephen Byrne)。

Tim, I'm trying to get my head around why the U.S. architectural business has been just barely profitable on average for 5 years. Has that trend been improving? Is there -- has there been any benefit from the Home Depot partnership? I asked because I had one of your store managers tell me you have to match the pricing in Home Depot, which clearly would not be good for his margins. But underlying all that, is it the number of stores? Or is it do you need to move to more of a concessionaire model in this business like Comex and like Ben Moore?

提姆，我想弄清楚為什麼美國建築業五年來平均幾乎沒有獲利。這種趨勢有改善嗎？與家得寶的合作有什麼好處嗎？我之所以這麼問，是因為你們的一位商店經理告訴我，你們必須與家得寶的定價相匹配，這顯然不利於他的利潤。但最根本的是，是商店的數量嗎？或者你需要在這個行業轉向像 Comex 和 Ben Moore 這樣的特許經營模式？

Thanks, Steve. So as far as what it's done over the last couple of years, it's been a little ups and downs, but it has been below company average, and we have been investing particularly in the Home Depot model.

謝謝，史蒂夫。就過去幾年的表現而言，雖然有一些起伏，但一直低於公司平均水平，而且我們一直在特別投資家得寶模式。

But why has it been at the low level of profitability over the last several years? A number of things, the macros aren't great. You've got this post-COVID hangover across the whole industry. As I mentioned, we have been investing. And through -- you mentioned our own stores, through our own stores, that's a high fixed cost model. And you need velocity through those stores. And with all the factors in the macro and in the post-COVID, that velocity has decreased.

但為什麼近幾年獲利能力一直處於較低水準呢？很多事情，宏都不是很好。整個產業都經歷了新冠疫情後的宿醉。正如我所提到的，我們一直在投資。透過－你提到了我們自己的商店，透過我們自己的商店，這是一種高固定成本模式。您需要快速瀏覽這些商店。考慮到宏觀和新冠疫情後的所有因素，這一速度有所下降。

Now the Home Depot Pro initiative is certainly working and gaining momentum and is positively contributing. But at this point, it's not far enough in that ramp-up curve to offset those macros, particularly what's happening on the DIY side. So the reason we're doing this now is we do have momentum in this kind of omnichannel model with the combination of the Home Depot, our stores and our independent dealers. And -- but we need a partner to make that go faster to get this to company average profitability. And so that's why we're open to a number of different scenarios for this business.

現在，家得寶專業計畫無疑正在發揮作用，勢頭強勁，並做出了積極貢獻。但目前，上升曲線還不足以抵銷這些宏，尤其是 DIY 方面發生的情況。所以我們現在這樣做的原因是我們在這種全通路模式中確實有動力，結合了家得寶、我們的商店和我們的獨立經銷商。而且 - 但我們需要一個合作夥伴來加快這一進程，以達到公司的平均盈利能力。這就是為什麼我們對這項業務的許多不同場景持開放態度。

The next question comes from the line of Jeff Zekauskas with JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自傑夫·澤考斯卡斯 (Jeff Zekauskas) 與摩根大通 (JPMorgan) 的對話。

I think in your Performance division, in the first quarter of the 6 categories that you look at, aerospace, refinish, architectural, all of them came in lower than you expected on a sales basis. And my impression is that things weakened in March globally. So if we forget the second half for a moment, is your expectation now that the second quarter is a little bit weaker than you thought it would be before as you began the year?

我認為在您的性能部門，在您關注的 6 個類別（航空航天、修補漆、建築）的第一季度，所有這些類別的銷售額都低於您的預期。我的印像是，三月全球情勢減弱。因此，如果我們暫時忘記下半年，您現在的預期是否是第二季度比您年初時的預期要弱一些？

And then secondly, as far as the share repurchase goes, I think over the past 5 years, your average purchase price is about $130 million. And so how do you evaluate the success? Or what are you trying to achieve in taking $3.4 billion and repurchasing your shares? How will you gauge the success of that allocation of capital?

其次，就股票回購而言，我認為過去5年，你們的平均收購價格約為1.3億美元。那麼您如何評價成功呢？或者你想用 34 億美元回購你的股票來達成什麼目的？您將如何衡量資本配置的成功？

Okay. Jeff, thanks for the question. I'll take the kind of momentum question that you asked, and Vince can take the repo one. But -- so I mean, full transparency, there were a couple of things that were weaker in Q1 than what we expected. We expected the Walmart -- lack of a Walmart load-in, right? So that's just straight math.

好的。傑夫，謝謝你的提問。我會回答你問的那種動力問題，文斯可以回答回購問題。但是，我的意思是，完全透明，第一季有一些事情比我們預期的要弱。我們預計沃爾瑪 - 缺乏沃爾瑪加載，對吧？所以這只是簡單的數學計算。

We expected some negative Easter timing impact. I would say that was higher than what we expected. And we are actually -- again, it's only halfway through the first month, but we're seeing a bit of post-Easter snapback, okay? So that was worse than the first quarter, but that will be just shifting to the second quarter.

我們預計復活節時間會產生一些負面影響。我想說這比我們的預期還要高。事實上，我們再次強調，第一個月才過半，但我們看到了復活節後的一些反彈，好嗎？所以這比第一季更糟糕，但這只是轉移到第二季。

Two other things. Europe was softer than we expected. And industrial production, combined with the launching of some of our share wins, was weaker than we expected. So if you think about all of those and roll forward to Q2, obviously, the Walmart load-in comp isn't there. I mentioned we're getting an Easter snapback. On Europe, early days, but we're comfortable with what we're seeing in April. So I'm not saying it's going to have a snapback, but it's -- we don't see it getting worse.

另外兩件事。歐洲的表現比我們預期的還要疲軟。工業生產，加上我們贏得的一些股票的推出，比我們的預期弱。因此，如果您考慮所有這些並向前滾動到第二季度，顯然，沃爾瑪的加載補償不存在。我提到我們將獲得復活節折扣。在歐洲，還處於早期階段，但我們對四月所看到的情況感到滿意。所以我並不是說它會反彈，但我們認為情況不會變得更糟。

And on the industrial side, we are seeing -- we are launching a number of those share gains that we executed throughout the second half of last year in Q2. And then finally, the refinish factor that I just mentioned, refinish, particularly in March, was a bit slower than we expected, but we're expecting a strong second half for refinish.

在工業方面，我們看到 - 我們正在推出去年下半年第二季度執行的一些份額收益。最後，我剛才提到的修補因素，修補，特別是在三月份，比我們預期的要慢一些，但我們預計下半年修補將會強勁。

Yes, Jeff, this is Vince. In terms of share repo, obviously, your numbers are accurate in terms of the last several years. Again, we've gone -- if you look over a longer time horizon, there's been times where we've done minimal share repurchases for consecutive number of years, typically, when we're more active in M&A. There's been times where we've done a large portion of share repurchases over a couple -- a series of years when the M&A market is not as robust and we have excess cash or excess balance sheet capacity.

是的，傑夫，這是文斯。顯然，就股票回購而言，過去幾年的數據是準確的。再說一次，如果你從更長的時間範圍來看，我們有時會連續幾年進行最少的股票回購，通常是在我們更積極地進行併購時。有時候，我們在幾年內進行了大量股票回購——在併購市場不那麼強勁、我們擁有過剩現金或過剩資產負債表能力的一系列年份裡。

When you look -- we do calculate what we think is our intrinsic value of our stock price. We do feel that with the 10% growth rate we have going forward in our estimates, there are times where it's an imperative for us to look at share repo as an option. As Tim said, we have a prioritized list of cash deployment. And again, dividend, keeping the businesses healthy with CapEx, we look at M&A and then we look at the intrinsic value of the stock based on our assessment, and that's how we effectuate the cash deployment.

當你看時——我們確實計算了我們認為的股票價格的內在價值。我們確實認為，隨著我們預測的 10% 的成長率，有時我們有必要將股票回購視為一種選擇。正如提姆所說，我們有一份現金部署的優先清單。再說一遍，股息，透過資本支出保持業務健康，我們會考慮併購，然後根據我們的評估來考慮股票的內在價值，這就是我們實現現金部署的方式。

The next question comes from the line of Kevin McCarthy with VRP.

下一個問題來自凱文麥卡錫與 VRP 的對話。

Tim, a few questions for you on the subject of Europe. I think EMEA was 31% of your mix last year. If you do wind up divesting some or all of U.S. and Canada architectural, maybe that number will rise a little bit moving forward. And it sounds like in contrast to China and India, which came in very strong, Europe did come in weaker than you expected.

提姆，有幾個關於歐洲的問題想問你。我認為去年 EMEA 佔您的組合的 31%。如果您最終確實剝離了部分或全部美國和加拿大的建築業務，那麼這個數字可能會略有上升。聽起來與中國和印度的表現非常強勁相比，歐洲的表現確實比你預期的要弱。

So a few questions would be, a, what is driving the variance versus your prior expectation in Europe exactly; b, maybe you can provide some color on the consumer-facing businesses that you have there versus industrial? And I'm curious to understand whether rationalization of your customers' capacity is playing a role at all. We were hearing more and more about that from various chemical companies anyway. So just a little bit more color on the region there and kind of what glide path of volume you need macro-wise to achieve that positive volume growth overall for the company that you alluded to.

因此，有幾個問題是，a，到底是什麼導致了與您之前對歐洲的預期的差異？ b，也許您可以提供一些有關您那裡面向消費者的企業與工業企業的資訊？我很想知道客戶能力的合理化是否發揮了作用。無論如何，我們從不同的化學公司聽到了越來越多的消息。因此，只需對該地區進行更多的描述，以及宏觀上您需要什麼樣的銷量下滑路徑，才能為您提到的公司實現整體銷量的正增長。

Yes. Thanks, Kevin. I'll take the last one first just to kick it off here. We have not seen any significant -- I can't, frankly, think of any of our customers that have rationalized their capacity to the point that it's affecting our numbers in Europe.

是的。謝謝，凱文。我先講最後一個，以便在這裡開始。我們還沒有看到任何重大的變化——坦白說，我想不出我們的任何客戶已經合理化了他們的產能，以至於影響了我們在歐洲的數量。

In Europe, I'd say the 2 businesses that probably affected us the most in Q1, one was consumer-facing, and that was deco. That was slower than we expected, mostly in France and in the Nordics. We did see green shoots in the East where we're also quite strong, so that's given us a little optimism looking forward. The second business on the Industrial segment, automotive. Automotive was weaker than we expected for the quarter.

在歐洲，我想說第一季對我們影響最大的兩項業務，一項是面向消費者的，那就是裝飾。這比我們預期的要慢，主要是在法國和北歐。我們確實看到了東部的萌芽，我們也相當強大，所以這讓我們對未來充滿了樂觀。工業領域的第二個業務是汽車。本季汽車產業的表現弱於我們的預期。

So that gives some insights there. But as we look forward, we do -- again, early days in April, we're seeing a better order book and better shipments. We do see -- we do believe that as we talk to our customers that the deco businesses in those hard-hit countries is bouncing off the bottom. They're not expecting it to get worse. And we do see recoveries beginning to happen in the East.

這給了一些見解。但正如我們展望的那樣，四月初，我們再次看到了更好的訂單和更好的發貨量。我們確實看到——我們確實相信，當我們與客戶交談時，那些遭受重創的國家的裝飾業務正在從谷底反彈。他們並不期望情況會變得更糟。我們確實看到東部地區開始出現復甦。

And again, each individually, maybe not the largest deco markets, but when you add them together, they're an important part of our portfolio, places like Poland, places like Romania where we have strong #1 positions and growing, places like Hungary and Czech. So we do see some green shoots there.

再說一遍，每個單獨的市場可能不是最大的裝飾市場，但當你把它們加在一起時，它們是我們投資組合的重要組成部分，像波蘭這樣的地方，像羅馬尼亞這樣的地方，我們在這些地方擁有強大的第一名地位並且不斷增長，像匈牙利這樣的地方和捷克語。所以我們確實看到了一些萌芽。

So we are not expecting deco to get worse, but we're also not naive enough to say there's going to be a huge V-shape, but we are expecting incremental improvements. And if you think about all the cost actions that we've taken on that continent, a little bit of incremental volume delivers really good leverage.

因此，我們並不期望裝飾會變得更糟，但我們也不會天真地認為將會出現一個巨大的 V 形，但我們期待逐步改進。如果您考慮我們在該大陸採取的所有成本行動，您會發現一點增量可以提供非常好的槓桿作用。

Automotive, we're taking a bit of a wait and see. Also, we're not expecting it to get worse. But marginally, it's a similar story, although a very different end customer base. We are expecting modest recovery, but we're watching it closely.

汽車方面，我們正在等待一段時間。此外，我們預計情況不會變得更糟。但從某種程度上來說，這是一個相似的故事，儘管最終客戶群非常不同。我們預計會出現溫和復甦，但我們正在密切關注。

And at the end of the day, with Europe, this has been a benign macro environment for a decade, maybe more. But -- and our teams have shown the ability to do what they need to do from a positive mix, a positive price and, importantly, a structural cost standpoint to deliver earnings and cash even in that very benign environment.

歸根究底，對於歐洲來說，在十年甚至更長的時間裡，這一直是一個良性的宏觀環境。但是，我們的團隊已經顯示出有能力從積極的組合、積極的價格以及重要的是結構性成本的角度做他們需要做的事情，即使在非常良性的環境下也能實現盈利和現金。

So sum it all up, Q1 was worse than we expected in those couple of businesses. We are expecting sequentially incremental improvements, which will give us good leverage. And -- but we are watching it closely. And if we don't see what we need to see, we will take further structural cost actions.

總而言之，第一季這兩項業務的表現比我們預期的還要差。我們期待逐步的漸進式改進，這將為我們提供良好的槓桿作用。而且——但我們正在密切關注。如果我們沒有看到我們需要看到的，我們將採取進一步的結構性成本行動。

Yes. And Kevin, this is Vince. I'll just add a point on architectural. As Tim mentioned, lower than our expectations in Q1, largely attributed to March. If you look at our performance through the first 2 months of the year, so Jan, Feb, that business was on our targets. We do feel there was a bigger Easter impact that we're seeing, again, a snapback at least early in April in that business.

是的。凱文，這是文斯。我只想添加一點關於架構的內容。正如蒂姆所提到的，第一季低於我們的預期，很大程度上歸因於 3 月。如果你看看我們今年前兩個月（即 1 月和 2 月）的表現，這項業務就達到了我們的目標。我們確實認為復活節的影響更大，我們再次看到該業務至少在四月初出現快速反彈。

The next question comes from the line of Aleksey Yefremov with KeyCorp.

下一個問題來自 KeyCorp 的 Aleksey Yefremov。

This is Ryan on for Aleksey. Just wanted to talk a little bit more about the targeted pricing you're doing in Performance Coatings. Wondering if you can discuss some of the areas other than refinish. And then just wondering if you guys are like having some more success in recent weeks following this uptick in oil.

這是阿列克西的瑞安。只是想多談談您在高性能塗料中所做的目標定價。想知道您是否可以討論修補之外的一些領域。然後只是想知道，在石油價格上漲之後，你們是否希望在最近幾週取得更大的成功。

Yes. So Ryan, the question on pricing, again, we'll continue to execute as we always have in refinish, as I described. But all across Performance, we deliver a value proposition that's far beyond the tin of paint. And that's what enables us to continue to offset things like wage inflation, which are higher than we expected; things that -- offset things like logistics expenses, which are higher than we expected. And that's because we typically supply very advanced technologies in our own products, but then additional services and tools to help the customer beyond what's inside the can of paint.

是的。所以，瑞安，關於定價的問題，我們將繼續執行我們在修補漆方面一貫的做法，正如我所描述的那樣。但在整個性能方面，我們提供的價值主張遠遠超出了油漆的範圍。這就是我們能夠持續抵銷薪資通膨等因素的原因，薪資通膨高於我們的預期；抵銷了物流費用等高於我們預期的費用。這是因為我們通常在自己的產品中提供非常先進的技術，然後提供額外的服務和工具來幫助客戶超越油漆罐內的內容。

So we expect to get price in refinish. You'll see incremental price in aerospace. We expect it in parts of PMC where we have some really good, sustainable solutions for our customers that they're very interested in. And so we really expect it to see almost across the whole portfolio of Performance Coatings.

所以我們期望得到修補漆的價格。你會看到航空航太領域的價格增量。我們期望在PMC 的某些部分出現這種情況，我們為客戶提供了一些非常好的、可持續的解決方案，他們對此非常感興趣。產品組合中看到。

The next question comes from the line of Michael Leithead with Barclays.

下一個問題來自邁克爾·萊特黑德 (Michael Leithead) 與巴克萊銀行 (Barclays) 的對話。

Question for Vince on raws and inventory. Can you just talk about where you guys are relative to more normalized raw material buying patterns? It looks like you maybe still have a few extra days of inventory.

向文斯詢問有關原材料和庫存的問題。您能談談您們相對於更標準化的原料購買模式的情況嗎？看起來您可能還有幾天的庫存。

And then I appreciate you don't give free cash flow guidance. But just given your full year assumptions of raws down low to mid-singles, volume up for the full year, I guess, broadly, should we still expect working capital to be a source of cash this year?

然後我很感激你沒有提供自由現金流指導。但考慮到全年原物料下降到中單、全年銷售上升的假設，我想，從廣義上講，我們是否仍應該期望營運資金成為今年的現金來源？

Yes. I'll take the end of that, Michael, because our assumption is we're going to continue to work down. We have excess inventory relative to our history. We're going to continue to work that down, especially as we're in this peak production season that Tim alluded to earlier. We're probably carrying 4 to 5 days of excess inventory versus history. All of that is in raw materials.

是的。我會結束這個，邁克爾，因為我們的假設是我們將繼續向下工作。相對於我們的歷史，我們的庫存過剩。我們將繼續努力降低這一點，特別是因為我們正處於蒂姆之前提到的生產高峰季節。與歷史相比，我們的庫存可能會多出 4 到 5 天。所有這些都在原材料中。

And we've made progress. We were at 10 days at one point last year. So we're about halfway through our journey. We hope to take another bite out of that in Q2, a sizable bite in Q2. And then for the balance of the year, continue to be prudent in our purchases, and that should generate a positive working capital on a year-over-year basis, working capital impact on a year-over-year basis on free cash flow.

我們已經取得了進展。去年我們曾經一度待了 10 天。所以我們的旅程已經完成一半了。我們希望在第二季度再次獲得這一成果，並且在第二季度獲得相當大的份額。然後，在今年剩餘的時間裡，繼續謹慎購買，這應該會產生同比正的營運資本，營運資本對自由現金流的同比影響。

In terms of our purchases, as I said at the opening -- or as Tim said in the opening remarks, most of our suppliers have excess supply. This is a market that is advantage for us, and we'll continue to push that. But again, our intention is to work down raw materials in concert with the peak season.

就我們的採購而言，正如我在開場白中所說，或者正如蒂姆在開場白中所說，我們的大多數供應商都有過剩的供應。這是一個對我們有利的市場，我們將繼續推動這個市場。但同樣，我們的目的是根據旺季減少原料的消耗。

The next question comes from the line of Laurent Favre from BNP Paribas.

下一個問題來自法國巴黎銀行的 Laurent Favre。

I had a question on China. I think you talked about growth in Q1. But presumably, this was still a quarter impacted by COVID. So I was wondering, when you look into Q2, what kind of momentum are you seeing there on the ground?

我有一個關於中國的問題。我認為您談到了第一季的成長。但據推測，這仍然是受到新冠疫情影響的一個季度。所以我想知道，當您研究第二季時，您看到了什麼樣的動力？

Laurent, thanks. Sure, there was an impact -- some impact on COVID, but automotive was a big driver. We expect that to continue. We're expecting double digit, high single-digit kind of growth again in Q2 from automotive. Industrial Coatings grew in China for us, and we expect that to continue. Refinish grew in China, and we expect that to continue.

勞倫特，謝謝。當然，這是有影響的——對新冠疫情有一些影響，但汽車是一個很大的推動力。我們預計這種情況會持續下去。我們預計第二季汽車產業將再次出現兩位數、高單位數成長。我們的工業塗料在中國不斷發展，我們預計這種趨勢將持續下去。修補漆在中國有所增長，我們預計這種趨勢將持續下去。

So it's really -- we've been maybe more confident than others on China for the last several quarters, and that is actually playing out as we expected. So I don't think you're going to see overnight going back to the growth rates of 5, 10 years ago, but we remain confident in continuous growth in China.

所以，在過去的幾個季度裡，我們對中國的信心可能比其他人更有信心，而這實際上正如我們所預期的那樣。因此，我認為你不會看到一夜之間回到五、十年前的成長率，但我們對中國的持續成長仍然充滿信心。

Yes. And just a couple of other data points. Our aerospace business is doing well there. The Chinese New Year brought about record travel in the country. And again, industrial activity there for our set of products and our set of businesses, we expect to remain strong.

是的。還有其他幾個數據點。我們的航空航太業務在那裡表現良好。農曆新年帶來了該國的旅遊創紀錄。再次，我們預計我們的產品和業務的工業活動將保持強勁。

The next question comes from the line of Arun Viswanathan with RBC.

下一個問題來自 RBC 的 Arun Viswanathan。

I just wanted to go back to the volume outlook. So it looks like you're guiding organic sales to be up low single digits in the second quarter and for the full year as well. So if you look at that second quarter number, it looks like low single digits, you can have some targeted price initiatives. So should we assume kind of flat volumes for Q2?

我只是想回到銷量展望。因此，看起來您正在指導第二季度和全年的有機銷售額增長較低的個位數。因此，如果你看第二季的數字，它看起來像是低個位數，你可以採取一些有針對性的價格措施。那麼我們是否應該假設第二季的銷售持平？

And then similarly for the full year, how are you thinking about kind of consolidated volume growth? I know you've given out some guidance by segment as well on the slides. But it would look like that you need a kind of ramp to about the low to mid-single digits on volumes in the back half. Am I reading that correctly? Or yes, maybe you can just clarify how you're thinking about volumes, how they should evolve through the year.

同樣，對於全年來說，您如何看待綜合銷售成長？我知道您也在幻燈片上按部分給出了一些指導。但看起來你需要一種將後半部的交易量提升到低至中個位數的水平。我讀得正確嗎？或者，是的，也許您可以澄清一下您對銷量的看法，以及它們在一年中應如何發展。

Yes. Thanks, Arun. It's Tim. You're reading the second half, I think, correctly. But Q2, one adjustment, you said price up, volume flat. We're actually expecting more price flat, volume up. Some of that because of what Vince talked about earlier, we still have a little bit of carryover of price negativity from that European energy cost pricing from last year. So Q2, price flat, volume up. And the rest of the year, I think you described it well, is that we'll see volume growth momentum moving through Q3 and Q4.

是的。謝謝，阿倫。是蒂姆。我認為您正確地閱讀了後半部分。但Q2一調整，你說價格上漲，成交量持平。我們實際上預期價格會更加持平，銷售量會增加。其中一些原因是文斯之前談到的，我們仍然有一些去年歐洲能源成本定價帶來的價格負面影響。所以第二季度，價格持平，銷售量上升。我認為您描述得很好，今年剩下的時間我們將看到第三季和第四季的銷售成長勢頭。

The next question comes from the line of Josh Spector with UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Josh Spector。

I wonder if you could just talk about Americas architectural a little bit more. So excluding the load-in impact, it seems like your volumes are up slightly. Curious just how much of that is Comex continuing to grow versus what you're seeing in the U.S. And if you could help us kind of delineate in the U.S., what's going on with Pro and DIY from a volume perspective in the first half?

我想知道你是否可以多談談美國的建築。因此，排除加載影響，您的銷售似乎略有上升。很好奇，與您在美國看到的情況相比，Comex 持續成長的程度有多大。

Yes. Josh, actually, it's a little bit flip-flop because Mexico, while it had another great quarter from a kind of sales and earnings standpoint as well as cash, the Easter impact in Mexico was more of an impact than it was up here. It's a really important holiday for our friends in Mexico.

是的。喬什，實際上，這有點反复無常，因為墨西哥雖然從銷售和盈利以及現金的角度來看又經歷了一個偉大的季度，但墨西哥的復活節影響比這裡的影響更大。對於我們在墨西哥的朋友來說，這是一個非常重要的假期。

And so we actually had decent performance in our architectural U.S. business versus last year and versus the kind of market. We're confident that we gained share in 2023, and we saw that momentum continuing into Q1, all on the Pro side, though, Josh. DIY remains soft, but we did see a good performance.

因此，與去年和目前的市場相比，我們在美國的建築業務實際上取得了不錯的表現。我們有信心在 2023 年獲得市場份額，而且我們看到這種勢頭持續到第一季度，不過，喬希，這一切都在專業版方面。 DIY仍然疲軟，但我們確實看到了不錯的表現。

The way we look at our Pro business now with what we're doing between our own network, our partner, Home Depot, and our many good partners across the private dealer channel, we look at it in totality. And despite all the negative macros, all the negative news as recently as this week on housing, we were up low single digits for the architectural U.S. business -- on the Pro, I'm sorry, that's on the Pro side.

我們現在看待我們的專業業務以及我們自己的網路、我們的合作夥伴家得寶以及我們在私人經銷商通路上的許多優秀合作夥伴之間所做的事情，我們會從整體上看待它。儘管有所有負面的宏觀因素，以及最近在房地產方面的所有負面消息，但我們美國建築業務的漲幅較低，只有個位數——在 Pro 方面，我很抱歉，這是在 Pro 方面。

The next question comes from the line of Mike Harrison with Seaport Research Partners.

下一個問題來自邁克哈里森 (Mike Harrison) 與海港研究合作夥伴 (Seaport Research Partners) 的對話。

I was wondering if you could give a little more color on what you're seeing in India. Obviously, you gave us some comments on what you're seeing in China. But what are some of the key markets that you're serving in India? What's your current position? And I guess maybe what stage or inning are we in, in terms of the growth potential that you see in India?

我想知道你是否可以對你在印度看到的情況提供更多的色彩。顯然，您向我們提供了一些關於您在中國所看到的情況的評論。但你們在印度服務的一些主要市場是什麼？你現在的職位是？我想，就您在印度看到的成長潛力而言，我們正處於哪個階段或局？

Yes, Mike, I was just there. I just got back a couple of weeks ago and it was fascinating. I've been going to India for 25 years, and there is always a lot of talk of improvements in infrastructure and public investment and growth. It's happening now. It is actually happening. It's very noticeable. If you go regularly, you will see a big difference there. A lot more cranes, a lot more highways being constructed, trains, airports.

是的，麥克，我剛才就在那裡。我幾週前剛回來，這真是令人著迷。我去印度已經 25 年了，那裡總是有很多關於改善基礎設施、公共投資和成長的話題。現在正在發生。它確實正在發生。這是非常引人注目的。如果你經常去，你會發現那裡有很大的不同。更多的起重機，更多的高速公路、火車、機場正在興建中。

We've got a very good position there, mostly on automotive, industrial and refinish, and all of those businesses are growing. And we feel really good about the growth trajectory going forward. Now it is not in our top 5 countries today. But the reason that we've started to highlight it is, one, we do have a very good position there. And for the first time in a long time, we see real tangible industrial production and infrastructure growth on the ground.

我們在那裡擁有非常好的地位，主要是在汽車、工業和修補漆領域，所有這些業務都在成長。我們對未來的成長軌跡感到非常滿意。現在它不在我們今天的前 5 個國家之列。但我們開始強調這一點的原因是，第一，我們確實在那裡擁有非常好的地位。很長一段時間以來，我們第一次看到實際有形的工業生產和基礎設施的成長。

And Mike, what's fostering that is we are seeing a significant amount of reshoring in Asia to India. The economy there is growing as robustly as Mexico. And again, that's driving that industrial activity.

麥克，推動這一趨勢的是我們看到大量亞洲企業回流到印度。那裡的經濟成長與墨西哥一樣強勁。這再次推動了工業活動。

The next question comes from the line of Laurence Alexander with Jefferies.

下一個問題來自勞倫斯·亞歷山大和傑弗里斯的對話。

Just one quick one. On the proposed or possible exit of the silicas and the restructuring of the North America coatings, how much would that have changed your volatility across your business? And I guess just going forward, I mean, you talked about M&A sort of leading to mostly focusing on higher growth, higher margin. To what degree does the volatility of the businesses you're acquiring factor in? Or just how are you thinking about that, managing that going forward?

就快一點吧。關於二氧化矽的擬議或可能的退出以及北美塗料的重組，這會對您整個業務的波動性產生多大影響？我想展望未來，我的意思是，您談到了併購，這會導致主要關注更高的成長、更高的利潤率。您所收購的企業的波動性在多大程度上會受到影響？或者您如何看待這個問題，如何管理未來的發展？

Sure. Thanks, Laurence. The volatility, the cyclicality, the seasonality are factors, of course. But I would say the #1 and 2 factors are, does it improve our overall organic growth profile on a long-term basis for the company? And does it improve our overall margin profile? So those are our first 2 factors. And then if we can do it without adding cyclicality and seasonality, even better.

當然。謝謝，勞倫斯。當然，波動性、週期性、季節性都是因素。但我想說的第一和第二個因素是，它是否會改善我們公司長期的整體有機成長狀況？它是否改善了我們的整體利潤狀況？這些是我們的前兩個因素。如果我們能夠在不增加週期性和季節性的情況下做到這一點，那就更好了。

To the first part of your question, clearly, architectural U.S.-Canada is one of our more highly seasonal businesses. So if we do separate entirely from that business, you can visualize the outcome there. And I would say the silicas business does have some cyclicality to it because part of that business is tied to auto OEM production in tires, but only a portion of that business. Other parts of it are tied to automotive aftermarket and tires. Other parts are tied to battery separators, consumer electronics.

對於你問題的第一部分，顯然，美國-加拿大建築是我們季節性較強的業務之一。因此，如果我們確實與該業務完全分離，您可以想像那裡的結果。我想說，二氧化矽業務確實有一定的周期性，因為該業務的一部分與汽車 OEM 輪胎生產相關，但只是該業務的一部分。它的其他部分與汽車售後市場和輪胎相關。其他零件與電池隔板、消費性電子產品相關。

So I would say it will have some impact, but not enough that it's going to, I think, affect your modeling of how you might model the company in its entirety from a cyclicality standpoint.

所以我想說它會產生一些影響，但我認為還不足以影響你從週期性角度建模整個公司的模型。

Yes, Laurence, Vince. Just a reminder, as we said in February, this has a multiple hundred basis point impact on sales volume improvement if you do a pro forma basis. But again, looking at that for a period of time, it's not significant in terms of cyclicality.

是的，勞倫斯，文斯。只是提醒一下，正如我們在二月所說的那樣，如果您進行預估，這會對銷量改善產生數百個基點的影響。但同樣，從一段時期來看，它的周期性並不重要。

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Jonathan Edwards.

目前沒有其他問題。我現在將把電話轉回給喬納森·愛德華茲。

Okay. Thank you for your continued confidence in PPG. We want to thank you as well for a good operating, so much appreciated. This concludes our prepared remarks and now -- or sorry, we appreciate your interest and confidence in PPG. This concludes our first quarter earnings call.

好的。感謝您對 PPG 的持續信任。我們也要感謝你們的良好運營，非常感謝。我們準備好的演講到此結束，現在——抱歉，我們感謝您對 PPG 的興趣和信心。我們的第一季財報電話會議到此結束。

Thank you, everyone. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

謝謝大家。今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連線。