Pittsburgh-based paint maker PPG Industries Inc. [NYSE: PPG] said performance coatings net sales grew 7% year-over-year in Q2 2025 to $1.5 billion, driven by organic growth in each area — aerospace, traffic, protective and marine coatings — other than automotive refinishing, which declined.
Organic sales in that category of its performance coatings segment fell by a low single-digit percentage even as “share gains and subscription revenue” aided it in “outperforming lower industry collision claims,” an earnings press release said.
Results are similar to the global coatings maker’s Q1 2025 results, when PPG said its performance coatings segment grew 9%, but automotive refinishing lagged while still beating the industry slowdown.
Meantime, PPG’s Q2 results in its industrial coatings segment — which includes automotive OEM paint products for new cars — also dipped by “a low single-digit percentage due to lower U.S. and European build rates.”
Segment earnings were up for performance, down for industrial. Performance coatings EBITDA rose 8% year-over-year and margin grew 0.3 percentage points to 25.7%. Technology and digital subscriptions drove higher organic sales for these products. Industrial coatings EBITDA declined 12% and margin fell 1.3 percentage points to 16.6% partly “due to index-based contracts.”
PPG reported Q2 2025 results July 29.
Major Metrics Down Overall, CEO Upbeat
PPG Chairman and CEO Tim Knavish said in the release that performance coatings sales were “record” results and the industrial coatings’ poorer performance had improved “after several quarters of contraction.”
He said the OEM coatings decline in industrial still showed “expected above-market growth,” and in the rest of 2025, performance coatings growth will continue to be “partially offset by a decrease in refinish sales” from an industry slowdown and softer ordering.
Overall, he praised PPG’s performance in “an increasingly dynamic macro environment.”
Knavish said companywide “growth momentum is expected to accelerate in the second half of the year, and we expect to deliver strong year-over-year earnings growth.” PPG reaffirmed 2025 guidance of $7.75 to $8.05 for earnings per share, driven by “EPS growth of a high single-digit percentage in the second half of the year.”
In Q2 2025, EPS fell 5% to $1.98. Net sales dipped by $40 million to $4.195 billion or 1% YOY; net income declined 9% to $450 million. Divestitures reduced sales YOY by 3%. In December, PPG sold its U.S. and Canada architectural coatings business.
Organic sales companywide grew 2% on slightly higher pricing, PPG said.
PPG at the end of Q2 2025 had cash and short-term investments of $1.6 billion, and net debt of $5.7 billion, up $479 million, about 9% YOY. It has roughly $700 million in debt coming due in Q4 2025.
Paul Hughes