Tokuyama Corporation, the Tokyo-listed chemicals and electronic-materials maker, reported group sales of ¥85.7bn for the quarter to June 2026, up 4.7% from a year earlier, while operating profit fell 22.9% to ¥6.1bn. Net profit attributable to shareholders still rose 6.0% to ¥5.2bn, helped by higher gains from selling down cross-held shares.
The group total hides a sharp split by business. Chemicals segment sales fell 10.1% to ¥24.7bn and operating profit collapsed 81.4% to ¥523mn, down from ¥2.8bn a year earlier. Tokuyama attributes the drop to several products at once: lower sales volumes and higher manufacturing costs for caustic soda, higher manufacturing costs for vinyl chloride monomer, and higher manufacturing and logistics costs for soda ash and calcium chloride. Vinyl chloride resin held roughly flat only because the company pushed through domestic price increases to offset its own rising costs. Group-wide, domestic naphtha, a key feedstock, averaged ¥116,500 per kiloliter in the quarter, up from ¥66,000 a year earlier.
| Segment | Q1 Sales | Q1 Operating Profit | Change vs Year Earlier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chemicals | ¥24.7bn | ¥523mn | -81.4% |
| Cement | ¥16.1bn | ¥2.6bn | +1.3% |
| Electronic & advanced materials | ¥22.3bn | ¥3.1bn | +10.8% |
| Life sciences | ¥14.7bn | ¥2.6bn | +54.8% |
| Environment | ¥1.1bn | -¥7mn (loss) | Turned to loss from ¥159mn profit |
The rest of the group fared better. Electronic and advanced materials, which spans polycrystalline silicon and heat-dissipation materials for chipmaking equipment, grew operating profit 10.8% as inventory valuation losses shrank and a Zhejiang-based dry silica unit cut manufacturing costs. Life sciences, lifted by the consolidation of the TLS group (formerly JSR-01 Corporation, renamed in October 2025) and steady demand for dental materials and generic-drug ingredients, posted a 54.8% jump in segment operating profit on sales up 61.5%.
Alongside the quarterly numbers, Tokuyama put figures on full-year guidance it had withheld since March, when it said olefin-procurement conditions were too uncertain to forecast responsibly. It now expects full-year sales of ¥392.0bn (up 12.2%), operating profit of ¥34.0bn (down 8.2%) and net profit of ¥26.0bn (up 17.1%), assuming the yen near ¥160 to the dollar and domestic naphtha easing to ¥86,000 per kiloliter for the remaining three quarters, well below the June quarter's price.
Despite the softer profit outlook, Tokuyama is raising its annual dividend to ¥132 per share, split between a ¥60 interim payment and a ¥72 year-end payment, up from ¥120 last year and the fourth consecutive annual increase. The company is targeting a dividend-on-equity ratio of 3.4% for the year, on the way to a 4.0% target for the year ending March 2031.
One factor is missing entirely from these figures. Tokuyama's planned sale of its domestic cement and solidifying-agent sales business to Taiheiyo Cement, agreed in March at a provisional price of ¥37.0bn, with a new subsidiary set up on July 1, 2026 and closing targeted for October 1, 2026 pending competition clearance, is excluded from the guidance because the deal has not closed. Expect a revision once it does.