8. Restructuring Accruals, Asset Impairments and Other Costs Related to Closed Facilities

The Company continually reviews its manufacturing footprint and operating cost structure and may decide to close operations or reduce headcount to gain efficiencies, integrate acquired operations, reduce future expenses and other market factors. The Company incurs costs associated with these actions including employee severance and benefits, other exit costs such as those related to contract terminations, and asset impairment charges. The Company also may incur other costs related to closed facilities including environmental remediation, clean up, dismantling and preparation for sale or other disposition.

The Company accounts for restructuring and other costs under applicable provisions of generally accepted accounting principles. Charges for employee severance and related benefits are generally accrued based on contractual arrangements with employees or their representatives. Other exit costs are accrued based on the estimated cost to settle related contractual arrangements. Estimated environmental remediation costs are accrued when specific claims have been received or are probable of being received.

The Company’s decisions to curtail selected production capacity have resulted in write downs of certain long-lived assets to the extent their carrying amounts exceeded fair value or fair value less cost to sell. The Company classified the significant assumptions used to determine the fair value of the impaired assets as Level 3 in the fair value hierarchy as set forth in the general accounting principles for fair value measurements.

When a decision is made to take these actions, the Company manages and accounts for them programmatically apart from the on-going operations of the business. Information related to major programs is presented separately while minor initiatives are presented on a combined basis. As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, no major restructuring programs were in effect.

In 2017, the Company implemented a number of minor restructuring initiatives and recorded restructuring, asset impairment and other charges of $72 million. These charges primarily consisted of employee costs, write-down of assets, and other exit costs in the following regions: Latin America ($45 million), Europe ($19 million), North America ($4 million) and Asia Pacific ($4 million). The restructuring charges recorded in 2017 were discrete actions and are expected to approximate the total cumulative cost for those actions as no significant additional costs are expected to be incurred. As part of the total restructuring charges recorded in Europe in 2016 and 2017, the Company has recorded total cumulative charges of $56 million related to a plant closure in this region and does not expect to execute any further significant actions related to this facility. The restructuring charges recorded in 2017 in the Latin American and European regions primarily relate to capacity curtailments and products produced at those facilities have, in large part, been reallocated to others in their respective regions. The Company expects that the majority of the remaining cash expenditures related to the above charges will be paid out by the end of 2019.

In 2016, the Company implemented a number of minor restructuring initiatives and the Company recorded restructuring, asset impairment and other charges of $98 million. These charges primarily consisted of employee costs, write-down of assets, and other exit costs in the following regions: Latin America ($18 million), Europe ($48 million), North America ($4 million), Asia Pacific ($4 million) and other corporate restructuring actions ($24 million). Except for the charges recorded in Europe, the other discrete restructuring charges recorded in 2016 are expected to approximate the total cumulative costs for those actions as no significant additional costs are expected to be incurred. The Company has recorded total cumulative charges of $47 million related to a plant closure in Europe. These restructuring charges primarily relate to several capacity curtailments and the Company reallocated the products produced at these facility to others in the region.

The following table presents information related to restructuring, asset impairment and other costs related to closed facilities from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2017:



	Total
	Restructuring
Balance at January 1, 2016	$	43
Charges		98
Write-down of assets to net realizable value		(28)
Net cash paid, principally severance and related benefits		(24)
Other, including foreign exchange translation		(4)
Balance at December 31, 2016		85
Charges		72
Write-down of assets to net realizable value		(11)
Net cash paid, principally severance and related benefits		(62)
Other, including foreign exchange translation		1
Balance at December 31, 2017	$	85

The restructuring accrual balance represents the Company’s estimates of the remaining future cash amounts to be paid related to the actions noted above. As of December 31, 2017, the Company’s estimates include approximately $65 million for employee benefits costs, $19 million for environmental remediation costs, and $1 million for other exit costs.