April 28 (Reuters) – PPG Industries beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit and revenue on Tuesday, helped by price hikes and strong demand in the aerospace and coatings segments.
The U.S. paints and coatings maker reported net sales of $3.93 billion for the January-March quarter, up 7% from a year earlier and topping analysts’ average estimate of $3.85 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Coatings manufacturers are leaning on price increases and resilient demand in aerospace- and infrastructure-related segments to offset uneven global industrial activity, higher input costs and broader supply chain pressures linked in part to the Middle East conflict and energy market volatility.
PPG said input costs for raw materials, energy, logistics and packaging have risen in recent weeks, prompting global price increases.
Earlier this month, PPG announced a price increase of up to 20% across its paints, coatings and specialty products portfolio, citing volatility in petrochemical, energy and transportation markets that raised input and logistics costs.
The company forecast flat to low-single-digit adjusted earnings growth in the second quarter and maintained its full-year earnings per share forecast at $7.70 to $8.10.
PPG’s performance coatings segment’s quarterly net sales grew 5% to $1.33 billion, driven by aerospace, protective and marine coatings, while the architectural coatings business gained from strong demand in Latin America.
Net sales in industrial coatings grew 4% in the quarter.
On an adjusted basis, PPG posted adjusted income of $1.83 per share, beating estimates of $1.77 per share.
(Reporting by Khusbu Jena and Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda)
