Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from the line of Frank Mitsch - BB&T Capital Markets.
Frank Mitsch - BB&T Capital Markets
What is tougher, the first quarter of 2009 or the Ravens’ defense on Sunday?
Charles Bunch
I would say speaking as a Pittsburgher I think the first quarter 2009 may be tougher than the Ravens’ defense.
Frank Mitsch - BB&T Capital
One of the things we are trying to get a handle on and you talked about difficulty in the fourth quarter with the de-stocking phenomenon working its way through the chain, do you have any sense how much further that has to go? When do we get to an underlying level of demand and along those lines could you offer an expectation of global GDP in 2009?
Charles Bunch
Let me take the first question. Volume levels and de-stocking in the first quarter of 2009, we are still at a relatively low activity level especially in the automotive and industrial segment in January. A lot of our customers here in the U.S. and also around the world in automotive have not yet restarted their operations in a significant way. We also have an early Chinese New Year at the end of January so I would say on the automotive side we are not going to have good visibility until February/March. I think we are still going through some de-stocking this month but I think you are going to see a return to lower volumes but somewhat more normalized here as we move through the quarter.
I think in some of our other non-automotive businesses we are seeing some activity levels that are up from the very low December levels. I think in other segments we are going to see a modest pick up from where we were. I think the de-stocking in many of the non-automotive and industrial businesses is moving through the system.
Overall, we looked at GDP growth on an overall global basis in 2008 of about 2.5%. We are probably going to be in our calculus probably slightly positive on a global basis, a couple of tenths of a percentage point. Certainly here in the first quarter and first half we are looking at negative growth on the GDP side in North America.
Frank Mitsch - BB&T Capital
You mentioned it is your belief as we marched through the fourth quarter conference call that PPG will have out performed the competition with the results you posted here today. What gives you the confidence to say that?
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
