스테판 컴퍼니(SCL) 2026년 3분기 실적 발표회: EBITDA 18% 증가, 판매량 7% 증가

핵심 요약

• 스테판 컴퍼니(Stepan Company)는 자체 출하량 성장, 마진 회복 및 프로젝트 카탈리스트(Project Catalyst)의 비용 절감 효과가 전사 경비 증가를 상쇄함에 따라 2026년 3분기 조정 EBITDA가 전년 동기 대비 18% 증가한 6,630만 달러를 기록했다고 발표했습니다.
• 조정 순이익은 2,170만 달러로 98% 증가했으며, 조정 희석주당순이익(EPS)은 0.48달러에서 0.94달러로 늘었습니다. 보고 기준 희석 EPS는 전년 동기의 0.47달러 대비 0.78달러를 기록했습니다.
• 자체 출하량(Organic volume)은 3개 사업 부문 전체에서 7% 성장했습니다. 계면활성제 부문은 8%, 고분자 부문은 3%, 특수제품 부문은 20% 증가했습니다.
• 계면활성제 부문이 실적 성장을 이끌었으며, 조정 EBITDA는 27% 증가한 4,800만 달러를 기록했습니다. 가격 인상 조치와 계약상 비용 전가 메커니즘이 원자재 가격 상승을 상쇄했습니다.
• 2,100만 달러의 설비투자(CAPEX)와 3,200만 달러의 운전자본 증가 이후 잉여현금흐름은 800만 달러를 기록했습니다. 순부채 비율(Net leverage)은 전년 동기 2.7배에서 2.4배로 개선되었습니다.
• 경영진은 2026년 연간 조정 EBITDA 성장, 양의 잉여현금흐름 창출, 지속적인 부채 감축을 예상하고 있습니다. 또한 2026년 프로젝트 카탈리스트를 통해 약 6,600만~7,000만 달러의 비용 절감을 달성할 것으로 예상하며, 이는 2년 간 1억 달러 절감 목표 대비 초기 60% 달성 기준을 상회하는 수준입니다.

주요 재무 데이터

보고 실적에는 뉴저지주 필즈보로 공장 폐쇄, 일부 자산 해체, 7월 발표된 글로벌 월급제 직원 감원과 주로 관련된 560만 달러의 세전 구조조정 비용이 포함되었습니다.

사업 및 영업 실적

계면활성제

계면활성제 부문 순매출은 15% 증가한 4억 8,700만 달러를 기록했습니다. 판매 가격은 10% 상승했고, 보고 기준 출하량은 3% 증가했으며, 자체 출하량은 8% 증가했고, 환율 효과가 매출을 2% 올려주었습니다.

자체 성장은 세탁 세제를 포함한 소비재와 건설 및 산업용, 유전 시장의 두 자릿수 증가가 견인했습니다. 농작물 생산성 향상 관련 수요 감소가 이러한 상승분을 일부 상쇄했습니다.

조정 EBITDA는 27% 증가한 4,800만 달러를 기록했습니다. 북미, 아시아, 라틴아메리카는 자체 출하량 성장, 가격 정책 실행, 마진 회복의 수혜를 입었습니다. 유럽은 농작물 생산성 수요 약세가 소비재 시장 성장을 상쇄하면서 소폭 감소했습니다.

고분자

고분자 부문 순매출은 24% 증가한 1억 7,900만 달러를 기록했습니다. 원자재 가격 상승분의 비용 전가를 주로 반영하여 판매 가격이 22% 상승한 한편, 출하량은 3% 증가했습니다.

북미 출하량은 경질 폴리올, 무수프탈산 및 스프레이 폼의 지속적인 성장에 힘입어 두 자릿수 성장을 기록했습니다. 유럽과 아시아의 수요 둔화가 이를 상쇄했습니다.

조정 EBITDA는 4% 증가한 2,300만 달러를 기록했습니다. 북미 EBITDA는 300만 달러 증가한 반면, 유럽은 독일 사업장의 규제 관련 정기보수 작업 영향으로 200만 달러 감소했습니다. 아시아는 특수 폴리올에 대한 중국의 수요 둔화 속에 소폭 하락했습니다.

특수제품

특수제품 부문 순매출은 12% 증가한 2,700만 달러를 기록했으며, 출하량은 20% 증가했습니다. 조정 EBITDA는 MCT 출하량 증가에 힘입어 5% 증가한 1,170만 달러를 기록했으나, 비호의적인 제품 믹스로 인해 일부 상쇄되었습니다.

경영진은 확충된 MCT 제품군이 추가적인 시장 세그먼트와 가격대를 아우른다고 밝혔습니다. 회사는 여유 생산 능력을 보유하고 있으며, 적절하다고 판단되는 수익성 수준에서 반응기 가동률을 계속 높여갈 계획입니다.

현금흐름, 자본 배분 및 영업

운전자본 변동 전 영업현금흐름은 4,900만 달러였습니다. 800만 달러의 잉여현금흐름에는 매출 호조와 원자재 가격 상승으로 인한 3,200만 달러의 운전자본 증가와 600만 달러의 구조조정 관련 현금 지출이 반영되었습니다.

스테판은 900만 달러의 배당금을 지급했으며, 분기 배당금을 주당 0.01달러(2.5%) 인상하여 59년 연속 연간 배당 인상을 기록했습니다.

10월에 회사는 밀스데일 부지 인근 부지를 2,850만 달러에 매각 완료했습니다. 경영진은 매각 대금을 11월 부채 상환에 사용할 것이라고 밝혔습니다.

텍사스주 패서디나 사업장은 약 75%~80%의 가동률로 운영되고 있었습니다. 경영진은 이 시설이 2026년에 이미 예상보다 큰 위탁생산 절감 효과를 내고 있으며, 향후 특수 알콕실레이트 성장에 여전히 중요하다고 언급했습니다.

경영진 가이던스

경영진은 스테판이 2026년 연간 조정 EBITDA 성장, 양의 잉여현금흐름 및 추가적인 재무제표 부채 감축을 달성할 것으로 예상하고 있습니다.

프로젝트 카탈리스트의 분기별 절감 연율(run rate)은 3분기에 약 2,300만 달러에 달했습니다. 회사는 이제 2026년 절감액을 약 6,600만~7,000만 달러로 예상하고 있으며, 이는 2년 간 1억 달러 세전 절감 목표 대비 이전 60% 달성 목표를 초과하는 수치입니다.

2027년에 대해 경영진은 프로젝트 카탈리스트의 분기 평균 절감액이 2,500만 달러를 상회할 것으로 예상합니다. 패서디나 공장의 생산 증대와 추가 프로젝트 이행에 따라 절감액은 상반기에는 해당 수준을 약간 하회하고 하반기에는 상회할 것으로 예상됩니다.

경영진은 4분기 자체 출하량 성장률이 2분기 6%, 3분기 7%에서 둔화될 것으로 예상하고 있습니다. 그럼에도 불구하고 올해 첫 9개월 동안 달성한 4%의 자체 성장은 회사의 전방 시장 대비 견조한 수준이라고 설명했습니다.

리스크 및 모니터링 항목

• 중동 분쟁과 관련된 차질을 포함하여 원자재 및 유가 변동성이 높은 수준을 유지하고 있습니다. 경영진은 3분기 유가 조건을 가정할 때 대부분의 가격 조정이 완료되었으나, 일부 추가 조치가 남아 있다고 밝혔습니다.
• 독일 사업장의 정기보수로 인해 3분기 고분자 부문에 200만 달러 이상의 악영향이 발생한 데 이어, 회사는 미국 무수프탈산 정기보수 비용이 4분기에 영향을 미칠 것으로 예상하고 있습니다.
• 건설, 자동차 및 광범위한 전방 시장 수요 부진으로 인해 유럽과 중국의 고분자 부문은 여전히 약세를 보이고 있습니다.
• 3분기 농작물 생산성 관련 수요가 감소했으며, 경영진은 어려운 농업 업황과 비료 가격 압박이 존재함을 인정했습니다.
• 매출과 원자재 가격이 상승함에 따라 3분기 운전자본으로 3,200만 달러가 소요되었습니다.
• 스테판의 약 8억 달러 규모 고정비 기반에 대한 2%~3%의 정상 인플레이션은 프로젝트 카탈리스트 절감액의 일부를 상쇄할 수 있습니다.

애널리스트 Q&A 하이라이트

가격 정책 및 마진: 경영진은 계면활성제 부문의 올해 누적 조정 EBITDA 마진이 두 자릿수를 기록했으며, 고분자 부문은 약 13%~15% 수준에서 운용되고 있다고 밝혔습니다. 전망은 여전히 원자재 및 유가 향방에 달려 있으나 대부분의 가격 인상 조치는 이행되었습니다.

분기별 실적 패턴: 경영진은 2분기와 3분기를 함께 살펴보아야 한다고 언급했습니다. 2분기는 저가 재고자산의 수혜를 입은 반면, 3분기는 정상화된 재고 원가와 다른 매출 믹스를 반영했습니다. 두 분기의 합산 조정 EBITDA는 약 1억 4,000만 달러였습니다.

고객사 및 시장 점유율 성장: 스테판은 올해 들어 300개 이상의 신규 고객사를 확보하고 900개에 가까운 신규 고객-제품 조합을 제공했습니다. Tier 1 다국적 고객사와의 지속적인 거래를 보완하며 Tier 2 및 Tier 3 고객 기반이 두 자릿수 비율로 성장했습니다.

지역별 지속 가능성: 경영진은 멕시코, 콜롬비아, 브라질에 위치한 스테판의 생산 거점을 들어 라틴아메리카 실적 개선의 상당 부분이 지속 가능하다고 판단하고 있습니다. 또한 멕시코가 브라질에 비해 아시아산 수입품에 더 많이 노출되어 있다고 덧붙였습니다.

장기적인 유럽 수요: 현재 고분자 부문의 수요는 약세를 유지하고 있지만, 경영진은 건물 효율성 관련 투자가 향후 3~5년에 걸쳐 유럽의 억눌린 수요를 촉발할 수 있을 것으로 보고 있습니다.

실적발표 컨퍼런스 콜 전문

전체 실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 녹취록

경영진 발표

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Stepan Company Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded on Wednesday, October 28, 2026. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Ruben Velasquez, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Stepan Company. Mr. Velasquez, please go ahead.

Ruben Velasquez

Thanks, Sherry. Good morning, and thank you for joining Stepan Company's Third Quarter 2026 Financial Review. Before we begin, please note that information in this conference call contains forward-looking statements, which are not historical facts. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to, prospects for our foreign operations, global and regional economic conditions and factors detailed in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings. In addition, this conference call will include discussions of adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow, net debt and leverage-related metrics, which are non-GAAP measures. We provide reconciliations to the comparable GAAP measures in the earnings presentation and press release, which we have made available at www.stepan.com under the Investors section of our website.

Whether you are joining us online or over the phone, we encourage you to review the investor slide presentation. We make these slides available at approximately the same time as when the earnings release is issued, and we hope that you find information and perspectives helpful. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Luis Rojo, our President and Chief Executive Officer.

Luis Rojo

Thank you, Ruben. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today to discuss our third quarter 2026 results. I will share the highlights of the quarter and an update on our key strategic priorities, while Ruben will take you through the financial details. Before reviewing the quarter, I want to recognize our teams around the world for their commitment to safety. Safety remains our top priority and the foundation of everything we do at Stepan. Our safety performance over the last 12 months remained strong. The third quarter was another quarter of earnings growth for Stepan. The 3 segments delivered organic volume growth and increased earnings versus the prior year.

Adjusted EBITDA was $66 million, up 18% versus the prior year, driven by global volume growth, margin recovery and Project Catalyst savings. Surfactant adjusted EBITDA was up 27%. Polymers grew single digits, including onetime maintenance turnaround costs at our Germany site. And Specialty Products grew EBITDA single digits, driven by double-digit volume growth. On a consolidated basis, adjusted earnings per diluted share were $0.94, nearly double the prior year. Now I want to highlight a few elements of our third quarter performance. First, volume growth. Organic volume grew 7% with growth in all 3 segments. Surfactant organic volume was up 8%, and the growth was broad-based across most of the end markets. Polymers volume was up 3% with North America growing strong double digits.

And Specialty Products delivered 20% volume growth behind a strong innovation plan in our MCT product line. We are pleased with the growth we achieved in several of our key strategic end markets despite ongoing global economic uncertainties and supply chain disruptions. Second, margin recovery and pricing discipline. Raw material cost continues to increase in a volatile environment, including the disruption related to the Middle East conflict. Our pricing actions, together with our disciplined execution of our contractual pass-through mechanism offset those higher costs. Third, productivity and cost out. Project Catalyst continues to deliver savings, and we are now projecting to exceed the 60% target for 2026. Finally, we remain focused on cash generation and balance sheet deleveraging. Our net leverage improved to 2.4x. Free cash flow was positive at $8 million despite a further investment in working capital.

In October, we closed the sale of a parcel of land near our Millsdale site for $28.5 million. The full cash proceeds will be used to pay down debt and continue to deleverage the balance sheet in November. Through the first 9 months of the year, adjusted EBITDA is up 15% and adjusted earnings per share are up 40% versus the prior year. We remain committed to a balanced approach to capital allocation. During the quarter, we continued to invest in working capital. We executed our capital plan across our site, and we paid $9 million in dividends. Finally, we increased our quarterly dividend by $0.01 per share or 2.5%, marking the 59th consecutive year that Stepan has increased its dividend. With that, I will turn the call back to Ruben to walk you through the financial details for the quarter.

Ruben Velasquez

Thank you, Luis. As shared in our third quarter 2026 earnings release, reported net income was $17.8 million or $0.78 per diluted share, up 64% versus $10.8 million or $0.47 per diluted share in the prior year. Reported results include a $5.6 million pretax restructuring charge largely related to the previously announced close of our Fieldsboro, New Jersey site, the decommissioning of select assets at our Millsdale, Illinois and the Stalybridge, United Kingdom facilities and the global salaried workforce reduction we announced in July. Let's move to Slide 6, which shows the adjusted net income bridge for the third quarter of 2026 versus the third quarter of last year. Adjusted net income was $21.7 million or $0.94 per diluted share, up 98% versus $10.9 million or $0.48 per diluted share in the prior year.

The increase in adjusted net income was primarily due to higher surfactant earnings with additional contributions from polymers and specialty products, partially offset by higher corporate expenses and a higher tax provision on the stronger earnings. Adjusted corporate expenses increased by $1 million or 6%, primarily due to higher incentive-based compensation associated with the improved operating performance. Slide 7 shows the total company adjusted EBITDA bridge. Adjusted EBITDA was $66.3 million, up $10.1 million or 18% versus the prior year. This increase was primarily due to higher surfactant earnings driven by sales volume growth and margin recovery with Polymers and Specialty Products also up, partially offset by $1.6 million of higher corporate expenses, reflecting higher incentive-based compensation.

I will now cover each segment in more detail. Turning to Surfactants on Slide 8. Net sales were $487 million, up 15% versus the prior year. Selling prices were up 10%, primarily due to the pass-through of higher raw material costs and targeted pricing actions. Reported volume grew 3% and organic volume increased 8%. Foreign currency translation positively impacted net sales by 2%. The organic growth was led by double-digit increases in consumer products, including laundry, Construction & Industrial and oilfield end markets, partially offset by lower crop productivity demand. Surfactants adjusted EBITDA was $48 million, up $10 million or 27% versus the prior year. North America and Asia earnings improved on organic volume growth in Consumer Products, oilfield and Construction & Industrial, together with margin recovery.

Latin America earnings increased on double-digit organic volume growth, pricing execution and margin recovery. Europe was modestly lower as reduced crop productivity demand more than offset growth in our consumer end markets. Moving to Polymers on Slide 9. Net sales were $179 million, a 24% increase versus the prior year. Selling prices were up 22%, primarily due to the pass-through of higher raw material costs. Sales volume increased 3% in the quarter. North American volume was up double digits, driven by rigid polyols and Phthalic Anhydride, including continued significant growth in our spray foam product line. This growth was partially offset by softer demand in Europe and Asia. Foreign currency translation negatively impacted net sales by 1%. Polymer adjusted EBITDA was $23 million, up 4% versus the prior year as North America's strong volume growth in rigid polyol, spray foam and Phthalic Anhydride more than offset the 5-year regulatory mandated maintenance turnaround costs at the company's Germany site, lower rigid polyol volume in Europe and softer demand in China.

North America EBITDA was up $3 million on volume growth and margin improvement. Europe was down $2 million, primarily due to the maintenance turnaround at our Germany site. Asia was slightly lower on softer demand for specialty polyols in China, partially offset by improved rigid polyol margins. Specialty Products net sales were $27 million, a 12% increase versus the prior year and volume increased 20%. Adjusted EBITDA was $11.7 million, up 5% versus the prior year, primarily due to higher volume in the MCT product line, partially offset by less favorable product mix. Now turning to cash flow and the balance sheet on Slide 10. Cash flow from operations before working capital was $49 million in the third quarter, while free cash flow was $8 million after $21 million of capital expenditures. Free cash flow reflected a $32 million working capital build from accounts receivables, account payables and inventories, driven by stronger sales and higher raw material costs.

Free cash flow included $6 million of restructuring-related cash payments. We ended the quarter with net debt of $536 million. Our net leverage ratio improved to 2.4x from 2.7x a year ago, reflecting continued progress in deleveraging. Improving cash flow and further strengthening the balance sheet remain key priorities across the organization. Moving to Slide 15 and Project Catalyst. Through September, we have recognized $76 million of pretax restructuring charges. The year-to-date cash impact of restructuring is $13 million. Project Catalyst continues to deliver savings in line with our plan. The savings run rate increased to approximately $23 million in the third quarter. These savings were partially offset by inflationary pressures on operating expenses. For 2026, we expect to exceed the 60%, 2-year $100 million pretax savings target. With that, I will turn the call back to Luis for an update on our strategic priorities and Project Catalyst.

Luis Rojo

Thanks, Ruben. Our strategy continues to be anchored in 4 pillars: First, customer-centric innovation to drive top line growth, diversification of our markets and customers with a focus on higher growth end markets and Tier 2 and Tier 3 accounts. Third, operational excellence, including the reliability and resiliency of our manufacturing network and supply chain; and fourth, financial strength through the free cash flow generation, deleveraging the balance sheet and disciplined capital allocation. We continue to make progress against these priorities during the quarter. Surfactants showed consistent and broad-based growth in the third quarter. Year-to-date, we have more than 300 new customers, and we have delivered nearly 900 new customer and product combination in this business with our global Tier 2 and Tier 3 customer base growing double digits.

Additionally, we delivered a strong double-digit growth in North America polymers and our MCT product line. We delivered this growth while continuing to recover margin in an inflationary raw material environment, which reflects disciplined commercial execution. The Middle East conflict has added volatility to fixed costs and supply chains, and we believe we are well positioned to manage that disruption. Our regional manufacturing footprint keeps production close to our customers with a particular advantage in the United States. Our dual petrochemical and oleochemical raw material streams give us flexibility on feedstock management and maximize customer supply. Finally, we continue to improve the reliability and resiliency of our manufacturing network.

Our flagship Millsdale site had a great quarter in terms of production volumes and improving all key operating metrics. Our Pasadena, Texas site continues to ramp up production and deliver the expected supply chain savings embedded in Project Catalyst. Pasadena remains a critical enabler for strategic future growth in specialty alkoxylates. Let's move to Slide 12 for an update on Project Catalyst. As a reminder, Project Catalyst is our comprehensive plan to further optimize our asset base and create a more productive and agile organization to enable balanced growth. We're executing the program safely and in line with expectations. Third quarter run rate savings was approximately $23 million, and we have identified actions that we believe will enable us to exceed the $25 million per quarter goal on average during 2027. We executed the organizational redesign phase of Project Catalyst during the third quarter.

This new organization design is a key enabler for us to deliver our balanced growth strategy, which is focused on top line growth, margin recovery and disciplined cost-out initiatives. To conclude, we believe we are positioned to continue delivering growth in our businesses. Despite the ongoing and significant market uncertainties and challenges, the organization continues to be focused on executing our growth opportunities, productivity plans and cash intervention. With these actions and our strong results through the first 9 months of the year, we believe we will deliver full year adjusted EBITDA growth, positive free cash flow and continued deleveraging of the balance sheet in 2026. This concludes our prepared remarks. At this time, we would like to turn the call over for questions. Sherry, please review the instructions for the questions portions of today's call.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from the line of Mike Harrison with Seaport Research Partners.

질의응답

Michael Harrison

So really good to see all the pricing that you guys are getting across the 3 segments. I think we're trying to understand a little bit better the margin impact that you're seeing from raw material inflation and how much pricing is offsetting you across the 3 segments. Maybe help us understand where the margin pressure is still a factor from inflation? And should we see further pricing catch-up in Q4? Or maybe when do you neutralize the impact of some of the higher raw material costs that you're seeing?

Luis Rojo

Great question, Mike. And what I will say is this continues to be a very volatile environment when you think about oil prices and raw materials. I think we did a pretty good job in Q2 and Q3. I don't want to focus too much in quarterly numbers. But when you think about on a year-to-date basis and you look at our margins and you see surfactants double-digit margins, I mean, EBITDA margins, you see polymers in the 13% to 15% EBITDA margins. Those are healthy margins, and we will continue to work on productivity to make sure that we have the best value for our customers, right? So right now, with the current oil prices, we believe we are in a good position in several places. There are a few places where we are still making some price adjustments. But in general terms, I think the majority have been done. And again, this assumes the oil prices of Q3. We will see what happens in the next few weeks with the raw material environment.

But so far, I think the margins for the year are going in the right direction, and we are pleased with the work that our commercial team have done, not only to have decent margins, but to be able to grow our volumes 4%. 4% organic volume growth in the first 9 months is almost a record, right? I mean this is a significant amount of volume growth. And we want to make sure that we -- I have talked a lot about balanced growth. And again, I want to continue balancing volumes, margins and of course, cash, but we need to keep our reactors full, and that's what we are after.

Michael Harrison

All right. And then in terms of Project Catalyst, it sounds like the savings there are running ahead of plan for both 2026 and maybe the longer-term run rate into '27. I guess the way we were thinking about it is you'd get about $60 million worth of savings this year and then the incremental $40 million coming next year. But how should we think about Project Catalyst contribution to further earnings growth in '27 versus '26. Is $40 million still a good number? Or could it be higher or lower than that?

Luis Rojo

No. Look, good question, Mike. But as we said today, we are ahead of the 60% target for 2026. So we are -- instead of the $60 million, we are more in the $66 million to $70 million range. And we already are delivering $23 million run rate in the savings in Q3. We believe we can be ahead of the $25 million on average for 2027, right? So that means $2 million, $3 million more versus where we are today. Now that's going to be, again, on average for 2027, which means ahead of the $25 million in the second half, slightly below the $25 million in the first half as we continue ramping up production in Pasadena, as we continue implementing other projects that we have in the pipeline.

So that's the main component of the gradual savings increases in the next 4 to 5 quarters. And remember that we have been very clear that these are the savings from Project Catalyst. We also have the normal inflation in our P&L. You know that our fixed cost base is roughly $800 million. That's public information. And you can factor the normal 2%, 3% on the inflation piece on that base, and we will continue working on productivity, as I said before, to provide the best value that we can to our customers.

Michael Harrison

All right. Just a couple more for me. Apologies if I missed this earlier, but what was the impact of the maintenance costs in Germany in the Polymers business in Q3? And is that cost completely isolated to Q3? Or is there some carryover into Q4 or next year?

Ruben Velasquez

Yes, Mike. Effectively, as you mentioned, we have that turnaround in Europe in our Germany site. That's a turnaround that happens every 4 years. It's regulated, it's mandated. And the impact on the Polymers business for Q3 was $2 million plus driven by that maintenance.

Luis Rojo

Remember, Mike, that we talked last quarter that we had $4 million, $5 million of headwinds in turnaround maintenance costs, both Germany and the U.S. So Germany was more Q3. You will see the impact in Q4 in U.S. with all the maintenance and turnaround costs that we need to do in our PA facility. So it's coming in line as expected and as planned.

Michael Harrison

All right. And then last quarter, you had talked a little bit about some volume that you felt like was being pulled forward or some prebuying that might be happening. I think at the time you expected that maybe that was as much as a $10 million impact to EBITDA. Now that we're sitting here in October and maybe you have the numbers to fully understand how much impact you saw. Is there any way to help understand how much stronger Q2 was than what might have been normal and how much weaker, I guess, that made Q3? Any color on that would be helpful.

Luis Rojo

No, yes. I agree, Mike, that we talked about the $5 million to $10 million impact from Q3 to Q2 last call. I will say that some of that was expected on the volume side, but a lot of that was expected on the margin side as well, right? I mean we grew in Q2 6% volume, but the reality is that we grew with lower cost inventory in our tank. Now we're accelerating the growth actually to 7% with a different mix, with a different mix than we had in Q2 as well and with a normalized cost position in our tanks and our inventory. So what I will say is that I think the best way to look at Q2, Q3 will be averaging both.

When you think about the $75 million and the $66 million, there was some swing for sure, but delivering $140 million in those 2 quarters shows the discipline of our execution plan, shows a strong volume growth, which, let's be clear, when you think about 6% volume in Q2 and 7% volume in Q3, we are expecting a lower growth in Q4 for sure. When you think about the year, when you include also Q1, we're growing volumes 4% on an organic basis. That's still a very strong performance when these markets are basically not growing, right? These markets are 0% to 1% growth. So that 4% growth on volume is coming from a lot of new customers and share growth in the different end markets. So we're happy with a 4% volume growth. If we can continue that throughout the year, that will be an outstanding year of volume growth for Stepan Company.

Operator

One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Dave Storms with Stonegate.

David Storms

Luis, I actually wanted to go back to kind of what you just mentioned around margin growth coming from both new customers and share growth. I was hoping, given you mentioned approximately 340 new customers, 900 new combinations, can you help us understand how much of the margin growth came from new customers versus share growth?

Luis Rojo

No. Look, when you're growing volume 7%, of course, you have the benefit of reducing all the fixed cost and improving the margins this way. So again, we are seeing very strong performance in the surfactants business when you think about especially the Americas, you can do the math, right? On a year-to-date basis, our Surfactant business grew EBITDAR in all the regions. I mean, grew EBITDAR in North America, grew EBITDAR in Latin America, actually even grew EBITDAR very slightly, but grew EBITDAR in Europe. So the business -- the Surfactant business continues to be strong based on share growth, Tier 2, Tier 3 strength and actually a few very good quarters on the crop productivity business. Q3 was a little bit softer. But when you think about the year, crop productivity is still okay and still positive. So we feel good about the Surfactant business. And when you think about polymers, again, very strong performance in North America with a strong double-digit growth. The rigid business is strong, and we are growing a lot of share in spray foam and in PA. We have talked the PA business in the past. It's not secret. We are growing significantly in the PA business. So we feel good about how the margin profile is going vis-a-vis the leverage that you have when you are growing volumes 4% or 6% or 7%. Again, this is not related to one side of one customer or the others. I mean this is across the board.

David Storms

Understood. Appreciate that. You also -- in that answer, you mentioned North America polymers is growing strong, but Europe and Asia still remain weak on the polymer side. Any green shoots there? Any signs of improvements? Is that just a macro story? Anything we should keep an eye out for there?

Luis Rojo

Yes. No, totally right. I mean this is a macro story for Europe and China. It's not a secret how the chemical industry is doing and a lot of the end market demand are doing in Europe and in China, when you think about China, the car industry and a lot of our polymers products goes there as well, and that's not robust. And then, of course, all the challenges that we see in Europe with the overall demand and with the overall construction environment there. Now there is a lot of pent-up demand in Europe that we believe and our customers believe we can capture in the next 3 to 5 years.

There is plenty of work to be done to continue reducing energy consumption in Europe, which is the biggest issue there. And the building envelope can make a significant impact in reducing the energy consumption. So that's where we play, and we are happy to play in that industry, and we're happy to play and help the Europe region to reduce the energy consumption in the building. So we are all hopeful that the next 3 to 5 years, we will realize that pent-up demand.

David Storms

That's really great color. If I could ask one more, and it might be a quarter too early to ask this, but because you brought up crop productivity volumes decline in the quarter, when we're looking into the next couple of quarters with a developing El Nino, do you see any changes in customer purchase expectations as we start to get ready for the next 6 to 9 months on the ag side?

Luis Rojo

Great great question, Dave, because we are seeing -- I mean, and you guys are seeing a lot of struggle from some of the big ag companies. So it's not a secret. Now what I will tell you is that our team continues to do a great job in developing new products, new formulations to continue growing share with all our key multinational accounts in the ag business and also growing with the middle Tier 2, Tier 3 ag companies. We still have plenty of opportunities, right? When you think about tank mix adjuvant, this is a $1 billion market in the U.S. This is a $700 million market in Brazil. And we are still in the infant phase of developing our tank mix adjuvants and growing in that space. So I agree with you that the macros are not there for the overall ag industry and fertilizer prices and all of that. On the other hand, we will continue working on our innovation plan to continue growing in this space because it's a key strategic priority for a Stepan company to grow in crop productivity. We have the products, we have the team, we have the know-how, and we will continue executing.

Operator

One moment for our next question. And that will come from the line of Gowshi Sri with Singular Research.

Gowshihan Sriharan

Congratulations on a strong quarter. It's my first call covering Stepan.

Luis Rojo

Welcome Gowshi. Welcome to the team and happy to have you here.

Gowshihan Sriharan

On my first question is the double-digit growth in the consumer products. I know you alluded that there's some share gains. And I just want to make sure, are these share gains that you can hold to? Because I think in previous call, you alluded to the fact that some of the competitors were short on raw materials. Any comment or color on that?

Luis Rojo

Sure. We continue executing our Tier 2, Tier 3 strategy, Gowshi. So that works in the consumer space that works in many of our end markets, but it's working. It's working in -- especially in the Americas. And we will continue growing with our Tier 1 multinational companies. We have a strong plan there. We have been doing extremely good with our Tier 1 accounts. And on top of that, Tier 2, Tier 3 is coming up incremental. So that's the good news about how the strategy is playing out. Tier 1s represents a very important business for a Stepan company. We are doing extremely well with Tier 1s and Tier 2s and Tier 3s are coming on top, and we're happy to support them as they need formulation services and help on their products. So it's an AND strategy. We're working on both.

Gowshihan Sriharan

On the Specialty Products in the MCT, how sustainable do you see this MCT volume growth heading into next year? Was there any kind of order timing benefit in the segment this quarter?

Luis Rojo

Yes, yes. Remember that we have a pharma business that is very seasonal, and that's why you see the EBITDA or the operating income on Specialty Product this quarter because we ship a lot of the pharma business in Q3, and that was very similar to last year, right? That's why last year was also in the same level of $11 million of operating income in Q3. When I think about the MCT business, Jamil and the team in Maywood has done an extremely good job of expanding our offerings in MCT, and we have developed a new innovation program to go into different segments and different price tiers within the MCT business, not only on the top tier, but also on the mid-tier.

That's why the mix effect and the margin is a little bit different. But that is showing up on the results, and that is also filling up our reactors. And the reality is that this year, we had a lot of headwinds on the fatty acid pricing. When you think about raw materials for fatty acids, we had a lot of challenges there. That's why we are not growing even faster, which we could in this MCT business. So -- that's our plan for next year. And we will continue to filling up the reactors. We have extra capacity, and we want to deliver all the capacity that we have at margins that make sense.

Gowshihan Sriharan

And then a little bit of color on the Pasadena utilization. Where is it running today in terms of utilization? And what does getting into full utilization add to next year?

Luis Rojo

Good point. Look, we are in the -- we have talked this in the past. We are in the 75%, 80% range on utilization. And as we plan and as we plan next year, that's why I mentioned before that probably we will see more savings on tolling savings and things like that in the second half than the first half, as we continue ramping up production in Pasadena. Now when I say the 75%, 80%, of course, is very focused on the volume piece. We are very focused on maximizing Pasadena on the dollar front because at the end, every product is different. There are products that require 30 hours in a reactor and there are products that require way more or way less. And what we need to maximize is the dollar return from our Pasadena site, and that's what the team is working. We are delivering more savings than we thought on the tolling piece in 2026 from our Pasadena site. So we are happy with the development even at 75%, 80% capacity utilization.

Gowshihan Sriharan

And just I'll sneak in one last question. Latin America, I think you mentioned there was a competition that left. And so how exposed is Latin America to the Asian imports coming back? And how much of this year's recovery do you see it as structural?

Luis Rojo

Great point, Gowshi, great great point because for sure, Asia imports, especially in Mexico, Brazil is more protected. Brazil has a lot more restrictions. But in Mexico is where we see a lot of the imports from Asia. And you're rightly so that that having local production in the environment where we were in 2026 is a significant advantage for companies like Stepan. We need to continue making sure that we provide the right value for our customers in 2027, so we continue growing that business. We have an excellent footprint in Mexico, in Colombia, in Brazil. I want to give kudos to the other Jamil. We have 2 Jamil's in the company, but the other Jamil is in Brazil and the whole Brazil team for what they are delivering this year has been an outstanding performance from them. And we believe a lot of that is sustainable. So we will continue our plan to grow share to fill up our reactors at the right margins and continue to provide the right value to our customers in the Latin America region.

Gowshihan Sriharan

Congratulations, and i will talk to you later.

Operator

I'm showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Rojo for any closing remarks.

Luis Rojo

Thank you very much for joining us on today's call. We appreciate your interest and ownership in Stepan Company. Have a great and safe day.

Operator

This concludes today's program. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.