Qatar produces about 30 percent of global helium as a byproduct of LNG processing at Ras Laffan, home to the largest helium production facilities on Earth. With the closure of Hormuz Strait, and attacks on Qatari infrastructure, the helium stopped flowing with it. Prices have doubled in spot markets. And helium has a property that makes this crisis structurally different from oil, fertilizer, or any other commodity. It evaporates, continuously. Even in sealed containers, helium boils off. If the supply stops for six weeks, all Helium is gone. Good bye to a 3rd of all helium in the world... let that sink in.
A number of industries depend on Helium, MRIs, that's the medical industry. A sustained one-third supply cut puts diagnostic imaging capacity at risk across every healthcare system that depends on magnetic resonance. It affects every single hospital on Earth. Also semiconductors that's computer and advanced technology industry. Every chip produced by Samsung, IBM, Nvidia, etc., every AI chip, every smartphone processor, every data centre GPU in the current generation traces its manufacturing lineage through a helium-cooled process. If fabs run dry, the production lines stop. Read that again, production lines don't just slow down, they stop.
Qatar produces about 30 percent of global helium as a byproduct of LNG processing at Ras Laffan, home to the largest helium production facilities on Earth. With the closure of Hormuz Strait, and attacks on Qatari infrastructure, the helium stopped flowing with it. Prices have doubled in spot markets. And helium has a property that makes this crisis structurally different from oil, fertilizer, or any other commodity. It evaporates, continuously. Even in sealed containers, helium boils off. If the supply stops for six weeks, all Helium is gone. Good bye to a 3rd of all helium in the world... let that sink in.
A number of industries depend on Helium, MRIs, that's the medical industry. A sustained one-third supply cut puts diagnostic imaging capacity at risk across every healthcare system that depends on magnetic resonance. It affects every single hospital on Earth. Also semiconductors that's computer and advanced technology industry. Every chip produced by Samsung, IBM, Nvidia, etc., every AI chip, every smartphone processor, every data centre GPU in the current generation traces its manufacturing lineage through a helium-cooled process. If fabs run dry, the production lines stop. Read that again, production lines don't just slow down, they stop.
And many other industries are affected.