China announced yesterday a temporary export ban on helium, effective immediately, as resumption of military conflict in the Middle East threatens to trigger new shortages of the gas critical for chip manufacturing.
Earlier this year, the US-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 ban is the latest example of Beijing seeking to prevent domestic shortages of critical materials by curbing exports. It has previously imposed similar measures on fuel, fertilisers and sulphuric acid. China is also looking to boost domestic chip manufacturing capacity and reduce the industry’s dependence on cutting-edge Nvidia semiconductors that fall under US export controls.
China is heavily dependent on overseas helium despite efforts to expand domestic production. Still, the export ban could squeeze global supply further because Chinese companies have increasingly acted as intermediaries, importing Russian helium and re-exporting some volumes to overseas markets, including Europe.
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