In recent years, China has quietly worked to lessen its reliance on helium sourced from the US, a rare and strategically important resource used extensively in industries like healthcare, semiconductors, and quantum computing.
This effort has included a range of actions, such as diversifying its international supply sources and boosting domestic production through advancements in science and technology.
The strategy appears to be working, according to experts.
China used to depend on the US for most of its helium. “If China faces a shortage of helium, the impact on technology would be significant because, in many areas, helium is hard to replace,” said Jost Wuebbeke, managing partner of Sinolytics, a research-based consultancy with offices in Berlin and Beijing.
But now, if the US attempts to use helium as leverage in a tech war with China, the potential impact would be “marginal”, said Wuebbeke, whose research focuses on China’s economy and industrial policy.
Today the US accounts for less than 5 per cent of China’s helium imports, while Qatar accounts for almost 90 per cent, with an increasing amount of helium also coming from Russia, which is expanding its capacity, he said.
The US could restrict Qatar’s access to helium extraction technology as a way of sanctioning China, but “the political costs of damaging relations with Qatar would be greater than the benefits for Washington”, Wuebbeke said.
From a supply availability perspective, while the US supplies a little less than half of the world’s helium, there are other major suppliers, notably Russia, which will become the world’s third major supplier when the Amur project – launched by Russia’s largest natural gas company – reaches full capacity in a few years, according to Phil Kornbluth, president of US-based Kornbluth Helium Consulting, which has ties to some Chinese clients, wrote SCMP.
As societies become more technology-driven, demand for the valuable gas is soaring.
Helium can be chilled to near absolute zero, making it essential for cooling cutting-edge equipment such as quantum computers, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, fusion reactors and particle accelerators.
Helium is also extremely stable, making it useful in the manufacture of sensitive products such as computer chips and laser light.
Driven by rapid growth in the semiconductor industry, among others, China has become the world’s second-largest user of helium; consumption grew by 7.2 per cent between 2020 and 2023.
Helium is a by-product of natural gas production, and while China has natural gas, it contains only trace amounts of helium, making direct extraction too expensive for mass production, wrote SCMP.
In an article published in late 2022 in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science, several researchers from PetroChina’s Beijing-based Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development stressed that once the US imposed a “stranglehold” blockade on helium exports to China, the country’s helium supply would be “greatly restricted”.
The US has a global monopoly on helium reserves and the most advanced helium extraction technology, they added.
But the dynamics have shifted significantly. Last month, achievements in helium extraction and related equipment development were nominated for an annual scientific award by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
These scientific and engineering accomplishments “break the long-standing monopoly of the US and ensure the security of China’s helium resources”, according to the nomination document.
In an interview last year with Liaowang, a publication under the state news agency Xinhua, Zhang Suojiang, director of the Institute of Process Engineering, which is also under the CAS, said that to address the low grade and extraction challenges of China’s helium reserves, his institute developed helium separation membrane materials and components, which have shown excellent performance in trials.
In 2020, China opened its first large-scale helium plant capable of producing the material at a commercial scale.
The Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry under the CAS, which backed the project, said it had successfully extracted helium from natural gas at the plant, located in China’s northwest.
China has achieved other significant breakthroughs, particularly in extracting helium from coal bed methane. In 2021, a joint project led by the China Coal Research Institute began, and within two years, the team announced they had successfully overcome the technical challenges and mastered the extraction process.
In 2023, China commissioned the world’s first high-purity helium extraction plant from coal bed methane, paving a new path to increase domestic helium production.
Meanwhile, scientists are also exploring alternatives to helium for achieving the ultra-low temperatures required in advanced industries. For instance, an international research team, which included physicists from a Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) institute, discovered a cobalt-based quantum magnetic material that could theoretically generate ultra-low temperatures without the need for helium. Their findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature in January.
An article published in February by the China National Chemical Information Centre (CNCIC), a prominent consulting firm in the petroleum and chemical sectors, noted that China’s pure helium production capacity remained relatively low until 2020.
However, between 2020 and 2023, the country experienced a significant increase in production capacity, driven by advancements in helium extraction technology.
Despite these efforts, Wuebbeke pointed out that China’s push to expand domestic capacity has had limited impact so far. While helium production grew fivefold between 2018 and 2022, 92 per cent of the helium consumed in China was still imported.
CNCIC projected that by 2028, China would still depend on imports for around 60 per cent of its helium supply. Nonetheless, the organization emphasized that China’s growing domestic production could serve as a valuable bargaining tool, helping to prevent foreign suppliers from arbitrarily raising prices or cutting off supplies, wrote SCMP.