Alisha Bellezza (PPG): “The automotive industry is undergoing an enormous change”

What are the main objectives of the investment in North America?

Alisha Bellezza: PPG is investing in the future of the automotive industry by constructing this new facility as well as investing in our current plants in North America. The new facility will help PPG to meet the increasing demands from our automotive OEM and Tier supplier customers across the region. The investments are part of PPG’s efforts to create a simplified, more efficient and effective global supply chain network to ultimately to create better service for our customers. The southeastern region of the United States is a prime location for future manufacturing and is a one-day drive from approximately two-thirds of the population. The location in Loudon County, Tennessee is close to key OEM and Tier supplier customers, creating supply chain efficiencies such as quicker delivery of goods, reduced fuel usage and faster response times. These investments will help us meet increasing demands from our automotive OEM and Tier supplier customers in the Americas with improved quality and operational efficiency and reduce product complexity for automotive customers. Furthermore, these investments allow us to produce a wider range of products for and our customers.

What will the next steps of the investment plan?

Bellezza: Construction of the new facility will begin in August 2024 with an expected completion date of July 2026. Once commissioned and fully operational, the facility will have 130 full-time employees and produce more than 11 million gallons of paint annually. As we look out to 2025, we also have investments planned at other facilities globally.

What new equipment and processes will be implemented in the expanded facilities?

Bellezza: PPG will leverage advanced manufacturing and digital tools to maximize quality, improve operational efficiency and reduce product complexity in this facility. Technology and equipment deployed at the site will drive automated production processes. New mixing technologies will result in shorter, faster processing time and produce larger batches to meet the growing demand from our customers. The new site will produce a wide range of products, including waterborne primers, waterborne tints, and waterborne basecoats.

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How would you describe the situation at the market for automotive coatings?

Bellezza: The automotive industry is seeing tremendous shifts in powertrain technologies, autonomous solutions and ride sharing, to name a few trends. Our paints and coatings will play a critical role in that industry transformation. To best support our customers, we continue to advance our technology portfolio to enable them to improve safety, meet sustainability goals and increase sales of new vehicles. We deliver total system solutions for our OEM and Tier customers for both inside and outside the vehicle and across a variety of automotive parts and accessories. These range from substrate pretreatment to spectacular colors and protective clearcoats.

We closely monitor key metrics including automotive industry sales and production forecasts and actuals, as well as planned and executed new vehicle launches. Another important metric is the percentage of those vehicles that are electric. With the automotive market still not back to pre-Covid levels both in sales and production, let alone the peak around 2017, this means there are fewer cars to protect and beautify with coatings. That said, the transition to electric vehicles presents new opportunities for coatings, especially as one of the functional enablers in the battery electric powertrain. Therefore, the opportunity to grow the content of coatings in each vehicle is increasing – this is a very positive development.

Are there further investments planned in other regions?

Bellezza: PPG continuously reviews its operations and manufacturing technologies to ensure we deliver the highest quality products to our customers. For example, in 2023, PPG announced a $44 million investment to upgrade five powder coating manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Latin America. The projects are part of PPG’s strategic efforts to expand its powder coatings offerings and increase global production to meet growing customer demand for sustainably advantaged products. Also in 2023, PPG opened a $30-million battery pack application center in China that features a full range of capabilities to test PPG coatings technologies, materials and systems for electric vehicle (EV) battery packs, allowing customers to accelerate the development of new EV technologies. We’ve also made investments in other regions and locations to ensure a truly global, effective delivery of products to our customers.