Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2014

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Basis of Presentation

Basis of Presentation.The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements of Silgan Holdings Inc., or Silgan, have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X.  Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements.  In the opinion of management, the accompanying financial statements include all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals) considered necessary for a fair presentation.  The results of operations for any interim period are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations for the full year.

The Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet at December 31, 2013 has been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements at that date, but does not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements.

You should read the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013.

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncement.

Change in Depreciable Lives. Based on the long duration of utilization of our production assets, due in part to our maintenance practices for such assets, and the consistent outperformance of their depreciable lives, we engaged a third party appraiser to assist in the evaluation of the useful lives of certain production equipment in each of our business segments. As a result of this evaluation, effective January 1, 2014, we increased the estimated useful lives of certain production equipment by an average of approximately 5 years to a maximum depreciable life of 20 years, which increased income from operations by $5.5 million and net income by $3.6 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, for the three months ended March 31, 2014.