Sekisui Chemical: 27/3 Q1 results: Stockpiling demand brings profits forward

Research evidence excerpt

Sekisui Chemical: 27/3 Q1 results: Stockpiling demand brings profits forward

Global Markets Research

31 July 2026Sekisui Chemical

4204.T 4204 JP / EQUITY: JAPAN HOUSING & REAL ESTATE

Rating27/3 Q1 results: Stockpiling demand brings profits

Remains Neutralforward

Target price

Increased from 2,450 JPY 2,530Responding to soaring input prices with speedy price hikes

Closing price JPY 2,665.0We nudge up earnings forecasts and target price, retain Neutral rating 31 July 2026

Sekisui Chemical released 27/3 Q1 results on 31 July, posting operating profits of ¥25.5bn

Implied upside -5.1%(up 20% y-y), beating our forecast of 2% growth by ¥3.9bn. This was due to stockpiling

demand for products such as PVC pipes and housing materials at the urban infrastructure

& environmental products (UIEP) segment and tapes and foam at the high-performance

plastics (HPP) segment. Customers and distributors were prompted to stockpile by

Relative performance chartconcerns that the conflict in the Middle East could cause product shortages or sustained

product price increases. Management said that rush demand in Q1 was equivalent to

around ¥5bn on a gross profit basis. We mainly revise our quarterly operating profit

forecasts as we expect the fallback from this rush demand over the rest of the year, but

only fine-tune our full-year 27/3 forecasts. We nudge up our target price too but retain our

Neutral rating as we think the stock is fairly priced at its current level.

Working to pass on sharp rises in input costs in speedy fashion

Prices of petroleum-derived inputs have been soaring because of the conflict in the Middle

East. As of April, the company had assumed a price for Japanese-produced naphtha of

¥65,000/kl, but it came in at ¥120,000/kl in 27/3 Q1, and management is now forecasting