China temporarily bans helium exports as US-Iran tensions flare again

By Eduardo Baptista

BEIJING, July 10 (Reuters) – China announced a temporary export ban on helium on Friday, effective immediately, as the resumption of military conflict in the Middle East threatens to trigger new shortages of the gas critical for chip manufacturing.

Earlier this year, the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran led to helium shortages, disrupting companies globally, including in China, where the AI industry increasingly relies on domestic chips for training and running AI models. Helium is essential for heat management in semiconductor production.

“The helium export ban is a clear effort to protect domestic supply after the Iran conflict reignited,” said Cory Combs, head of supply chain and critical minerals research at policy research firm Trivium China.

“The good news is that I’m not aware of any country particularly dependent on imports of helium from China. The export ban may have impacts at the margins, but it should not drive shortages or major price shocks.”

China is highly dependent on imported helium. Trivium estimates that imports account for about 85% of its requirements.

Qatar — which has supplied more than half of China’s helium imports in recent years and accounts for a third of global supply — had its exports disrupted by previous Iranian attacks, Combs said.

The helium ban is the latest example of Beijing seeking to prevent domestic shortages of critical materials by curbing exports. It has imposed similar measures on fuel, fertilisers and sulphuric acid.

CHINA EXPORTS SURPLUS HELIUM

Chinese companies have typically exported some helium by selling surplus volumes into other Asian markets, Combs said.

With renewed conflict in the Middle East raising supply risks and regional prices, Beijing is seeking to prevent domestic companies from exporting for profit and worsening domestic price spikes, he said.

Helium is extracted from natural gas fields with unusually high helium concentrations and cannot be quickly manufactured from other industrial processes.

In chipmaking, it is used for wafer cooling, plasma etching, chemical vapour deposition, atomic layer deposition, lithography support and leak detection.

(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Tom Hogue)