Dive Brief:
- China’s Ministry of Commerce said Wednesday it will lift an export ban on Illumina on Nov. 10.
- The company remains on China’s unreliable entity list, meaning government approval to purchase its laboratory instruments is still required, Illumina said.
- The decision follows last week’s truce in the trade war between the U.S. and China that saw the Trump administration reduce or suspend some tariffs on imports from China.
Dive Insight:
In February, China listed Illumina as an unreliable entity, setting the stage for trade restrictions.
A month later, as Trump’s tariff wars were heating up, China placed a ban on imports of Illumina’s sequencers. The action came after the U.S. doubled tariffs on all Chinese imports to 20%. Illumina was among a range of U.S. companies that faced export control measures from China.
The export ban has affected Illumina’s instruments business in China, resulting in a 54% decline year over year in the third quarter, company executives said on an earnings call last week.
Illumina reported third-quarter revenue of $1.08 billion, roughly flat year over year. Excluding China, revenue grew about 2%, executives said on the call. Revenue from China was $52 million.
Canaccord Genuity analyst Kyle Mikson, in a note, called the lifting of the ban “a highly promising development that could enable Illumina to recapture a meaningful portion of lost revenue.”
Illumina’s CEO said in a statement Wednesday that the company was continuing to “engage with authorities and stakeholders as we work toward a long-term resolution.”
The company on Wednesday said it was not changing its fiscal year 2025 outlook. Illumina previously projected a year-over-year decline in total company revenue in a range of 1.5% to 0.5% on a constant currency basis, an improvement from its prior forecast for a decline of 2.5% to 1.5%.
