Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Frank Mitsch with BB&T Capital Markets, please proceed.
Frank Mitsch - BB&T Capital Markets
The transcript from this call, that I get to ask the very first question on the PPG conference call, this is a very special moment for me indeed and forgive me for choking up.
Charles Bunch
Welcome, Frank.
William H. Hernandez
Thanks, Frank.
Frank Mitsch - BB&T Capital Markets
As I listened to the commentary, it sounded as if you were putting together a thesis that things were accelerating for PPG as we progressed through the year in terms of the year-over-year comparisons, which obviously bodes well for the early part of ’08. Is that a fair takeaway? And also, Bill, if you could provide some thoughts on the broader economic environment both domestically and internationally.
Charles Bunch
Thank you, Frank, this is Chuck Bunch. And thank you for being the historic first caller on this webcast. And I would say that from an economic standpoint, the fourth quarter had a lot of the issues in our markets that we talked about dealing with in 2008.
We’ve been dealing with a weaker residential construction market here in the US all year and certainly continued in the fourth quarter of ’07. The automotive market also in the fourth quarter of ’07 was weaker. But I think that you saw the strength that we have with our geographic and diversity, and our mix of businesses that despite weaknesses in some of our end markets, especially here in the US, we still had a very solid quarter. And we think some of those issues will be with us at least in the first half of 2008, especially here in the US.
But overall, we do not see signs of weakness outside of the US at this point. And I will let Bill also respond and what he’s seeing.
William H. Hernandez
I think that Chuck is right about that. As we look at it, we have seen a little bit of a soft patch here in the US, maybe for the first half of the year. I think that we mentioned a year ago that we saw and felt that a soft patch was coming, and it is here now.
In our opinion, we have really been navigating through some very choppy waters for the past six months and there is still some ahead. But we think that the economy is doing quite well and it is absorbing these issues and it is still growing. There are still some lagging effects to be felt there, no doubt about it. And I think that there is a great deal of pessimism baked into some people’s thoughts that may be overdone.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
