Business Restructuring

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Restructuring and Related Activities [Abstract]

The Company records restructuring liabilities that represent charges incurred in connection with consolidations of certain operations, including operations from acquisitions, as well as headcount reduction programs. These charges consist primarily of severance costs and certain other cash costs. As a result of these programs, the Company will also incur incremental non-cash accelerated depreciation expense for certain assets due to their reduced expected asset life. These charges are not allocated to the Company’s reportable business segments. Refer to Note 21, “Reportable Business Segment Information” for additional information.

In October 2024, the Company approved a comprehensive cost reduction program with anticipated annualized pre-tax savings of approximately $175 million once fully implemented, including savings of $60 million in 2025. The multi-year program is focused on reducing structural costs primarily in Europe and in certain other global businesses, along with other corporate costs following the divestitures of PPG’s silicas products business and the architectural coatings business in the U.S. and Canada. The program includes various facility closures and other targeted fixed cost reductions. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the Company recorded a pretax restructuring charge of $239 million, representing employee severance and other cash costs. As a result of this program, the Company also recognized a $110 million non-cash charge in the fourth quarter of 2024 due to the recognition of accumulated currency losses related to the exit of its Argentina operations. Additionally, the Company expects to incur approximately $100 million of incremental noncash accelerated depreciation expense over the life of the program for certain assets due to their reduced expected asset life in addition to other cash costs of approximately $70 million over the duration of this program, consisting of incremental restructuring-related cash costs for certain items that are required to be recognized as period expense as incurred. The restructuring actions will result in the net reduction of approximately 1,800 positions, primarily in Europe and the U.S. The majority of these restructuring actions are expected to be completed in 2025 and 2026.

In 2023, the Company approved business restructuring actions to reduce costs and improve the profitability of the overall business portfolio. The majority of these restructuring actions are expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

In 2022, the Company approved a business restructuring plan which included actions to reduce its global cost structure in response to economic conditions, including softening demand in Europe and lower than expected demand recovery in China. The Company performed a comprehensive evaluation to identify opportunities to reduce costs and improve the profitability of the overall business portfolio. The program includes actions to right-size employee headcount, reductions in functional and administrative costs and other cost savings actions. The majority of these restructuring actions are expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

The following table summarizes restructuring reserve activity for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023:


	Total Reserve
($ in millions)	2024	2023
January 1	$110	$165
Approved restructuring actions	239	33
Release of prior reserves and other adjustments(a)	(6)	(35)
Cash payments	(52)	(56)
Foreign currency impact	(15)	3
December 31	$276	$110

(a)Certain releases were recorded to reflect the current estimate of costs to complete planned business restructuring actions.