J.P.Morgan GLOBAL EQUITY RESEARCH

Research evidence excerpt

J.P.Morgan GLOBAL EQUITY RESEARCH

% of our estimate of the 14m bbl/day needed to achieve zero dependence on the Strait. While East Pipes

was +5% and Arabian Pipes was+7% today, we are confident the theme and the associated midcaps have further upside as

Saudi and the UAE do more to fill in the remaining 12m bbl/day infrastructure gap. We continue to flag our JPM MENA Energy

Infrastructure Buildout Beneficiaries’ Delta 1 basket (JPMEIFRA Index on Bloomberg). We remain a cautious N on both

MSCI Saudi and MSCI UAE, but expect the pipelines/ports mid-cap theme, especially in Saudi, to continue to outperform and

attract ongoing interest from both GEM and regional funds.

Americas Construction Materials (Adrian E Huerta/Elodie Rall), United States, Mexico, Switzerland

2Q26 Preview: Expect Margins to Trough, Vols Remain Subdued, and Cement Pricing Still Weak; CX

Best Positioned

Ahead of 2Q26 earnings results, which kick off towards the end of the month, and following recent conversations with our

companies, we are updating our 2Q26 estimates. To this end, we broadly expect to see margin headwinds related to elevated

energy prices, particularly for aggs producers given the increase in diesel fuel costs, but view 2Q as the trough of margin

pressures for the year with mid-year price increases, improvement in underlying demand, and fading energy prices driving 2H

improvement. While cement operations are more insulated from energy cost headwinds, limited pricing realization and

subdued demand are likely to weigh on margins for these names as well. Notably, despite most January cement price

increases being pushed out to April, we saw limited price realization in April cement pricing data (here) across the industry and