5. Restructuring Accruals

Selected information related to the restructuring accruals for the three months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 is as follows:


	Employee		Asset		Other		Total
	Costs		Impairment		Exit Costs		Restructuring
Balance at April 1, 2018	$	63	$	—	$	17	$	80
Charges		15		53		2		70
Write-down of assets to net realizable value				(53)				(53)
Net cash paid, principally severance and related benefits		(5)				(1)		(6)
Other, including foreign exchange translation		(2)				(2)		(4)
Balance at June 30, 2018	$	71	$	—	$	16	$	87


	Employee		Asset		Other		Total
	Costs		Impairment		Exit Costs		Restructuring
Balance at April 1, 2017	$	87	$		$	17	$	104
Charges		10						10
Net cash paid, principally severance and related benefits		(5)				(3)		(8)
Other, including foreign exchange translation		2				3		5
Balance at June 30, 2017	$	94	$	—	$	17	$	111

Selected information related to the restructuring accruals for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 is as follows:


	Employee		Asset		Other		Total
	Costs		Impairment		Exit Costs		Restructuring
Balance at January 1, 2018	$	67	$		$	18	$	85
Charges		15		53		2		70
Write-down of assets to net realizable value				(53)				(53)
Net cash paid, principally severance and related benefits		(10)				(2)		(12)
Other, including foreign exchange translation		(1)				(2)		(3)
Balance at June 30, 2018	$	71	$	—	$	16	$	87


	Employee		Asset		Other		Total
	Costs		Impairment		Exit Costs		Restructuring
Balance at January 1, 2017	$	67	$		$	18	$	85
Charges		34		9		5		48
Write-down of assets to net realizable value				(9)				(9)
Net cash paid, principally severance and related benefits		(10)				(6)		(16)
Other, including foreign exchange translation		3						3
Balance at June 30, 2017	$	94	$	—	$	17	$	111

When a decision is made to take restructuring actions, the Company manages and accounts for them programmatically apart from the on-going operations of the business. Information related to major programs are presented separately while minor initiatives are presented on a combined basis. As of June 30, 2018 and 2017, no major restructuring programs were in effect.

In the three and six months ended June 30, 2018, the Company implemented several discrete restructuring initiatives and recorded restructuring, asset impairment and other charges of $70 million. These charges consisted of employee costs, write-down of assets, and other exit costs primarily related to a plant closure in the Americas region. These restructuring charges were discrete actions and are expected to approximate the total cumulative costs for those actions as no significant additional costs are expected to be incurred. These restructuring charges primarily relate to capacity curtailments and the Company plans to reallocate the products produced at these facilities to other facilities. These charges were recorded to Cost of goods sold ($5 million) and Other expense, net ($65 million) on the Condensed Consolidated Results of Operations. 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 the three and six months ended June 30, 2017, the Company implemented several discrete restructuring initiatives and recorded restructuring, asset impairment and other charges of $10 million and $48 million, respectively. For the six months ended June 30, 2017, these charges primarily consisted of employee costs, write-down of assets, and other exit costs in the following regions: Americas ($35 million) and Europe ($13 million). The restructuring charges recorded were discrete actions and are expected to approximate the total cumulative costs for those actions as no significant additional costs are expected to be incurred. The restructuring charges recorded in the Americas and European regions primarily relate to capacity curtailments. The Company plans to reallocate the products produced at these facilities to others in their respective regions. These charges were recorded to Other expense, net on the Condensed Consolidated Results of Operations. The Company expects that the majority of the remaining cash expenditures related to the above charges will be paid out by the end of 2018.

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 (third party appraisal) in the fair value hierarchy as set forth in the general accounting principles for fair value measurements. For the asset impairments recorded through June 30, 2018 and June 30, 2017, the remaining carrying value of the impaired assets was approximately $3 million and $0, respectively.