World
Beijing Barred HENSOLDT From Chinese Germanium Over Two Radars
China's April 24 dual-use ban on HENSOLDT covers germanium and gallium, closes re-export workarounds, and landed the day after Brussels named 28 third-country entities in its Russia sanctions package. The Optronics segment, where germanium actually goes, grew 20 percent in FY2025; Ladurner's 'end of 2028' runway points to mid-year at that pace.
China barred HENSOLDT AG from Chinese dual-use exports on April 24, citing delivery of two TRML air-defense radar units to Taipei. MOFCOM Announcement No. 20 named six other EU defense firms alongside HENSOLDT, including FN Herstal and Czech ammunition maker Excalibur Army. No public record names the specific TRML variant delivered.
HENSOLDT's current flagship export is the TRML-4D, a gallium nitride AESA tracking 1,500 targets at 250 km; the older TRML-3D uses passive phased array. Former CEO Thomas Müller confirmed the Taiwan deliveries on a Q1 2024 analyst call.
Beijing waited eighteen months to act. The EU's 20th Russia sanctions package, adopted April 23, named 28 third-country entities for supplying dual-use goods to Russia, with Chinese firms making up the largest bloc. MOFCOM announced the HENSOLDT restriction the following day; Taiwan's Defense Minister Wellington Koo said the ban would not affect the island's procurement.
The ban covers all dual-use items: germanium for HENSOLDT's infrared optics and gallium nitride for transmit-receive modules in its radar arrays. The EU sources roughly 46 percent of its critical mineral imports from China. Beijing extended the restriction to re-exports, closing the third-country routing option.
HENSOLDT had moved on gallium six weeks before the ban. A March 18 supply agreement with United Monolithic Semiconductors of France and Germany covers 900,000 gallium nitride components for the Spexer radar family through 2030. A germanium crystal-growing facility at HENSOLDT's Oberkochen site, built with the Fraunhofer Institute, is targeted for end of 2027.
CFO Christian Ladurner told analysts that existing germanium inventory runs through end of 2028, a statement made on April 26 before Q1 2026 results were public. Revenue posted May 6 reached €496 million, up 25 percent year-on-year. The order backlog reached a record €9.80 billion, up 41 percent from €6.93 billion a year earlier; HENSOLDT reaffirmed full-year guidance of roughly €2.75 billion.
The Optronics segment's 20 percent FY2025 growth, driven by Luchs 2 and Leopard 2 platform orders, points to a gap in Ladurner's April 26 runway estimate. At that consumption rate, a 32-month germanium stockpile from April 2026 shortens to roughly 27 months, ending in mid-2028 rather than at year-end. The Q1 backlog print added another €968 million to the production queue ten days after he spoke; Ladurner has not offered a revised figure since.
HENSOLDT's AGM is May 22, the first public moment for shareholders to press Ladurner on whether the 2028 runway holds at the Optronics segment's current growth rate. Watch the half-year results in August: if H1 throughput exceeds €1.375 billion, the mid-2028 endpoint needs a public revision before the fiscal year closes.