Helium has become a focal point of discussion following an announcement by China's Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs on July 10th, implementing temporary export controls on the gas.
Since the second quarter, domestic research and interest in the helium industry have been steadily increasing. In April and June, industry information provider SCI organized client visits to Shaanxi and Ningxia for helium business inspections. Starting July 13th, another firm, Longzhong, led a tour to key regions including Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Ningxia. Many businesses are seeking to hedge against the risks of unstable overseas helium supply.
Zhang Wei, a helium industry analyst at SCI, noted that while the overall scale of the helium industry is relatively small, with a total global market of just over 5,000 tons last year and limited industrial output value, its strategic importance is extremely high. Helium is an indispensable key raw material in the industrial sector, particularly for supporting the operation of core industries like semiconductor manufacturing. A shortage could halt related production processes, giving it strategic value far exceeding its economic scale.
In recent years, domestic companies have continuously deepened technological research and development, exploring unique helium extraction processes distinct from overseas methods. This has enabled a rapid catch-up and steady expansion of domestic helium production capacity. Liu Hongfei, the legal representative of Zhongke Fuhai (Zhongshan) Cryogenic Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd., stated that the maturation of customized domestic process routes is steadily driving the release of domestic helium capacity, gradually breaking the overseas monopoly on technology and gas sources.
Securing Core Domestic Industrial Demand
China's helium supply is highly dependent on imports. Statistics show that in 2025, China's total helium supply was 5,818 tons, of which 4,913 tons were imported and 905 tons were domestically produced (including crude helium and all extraction output). The industry's import dependency rate was as high as 84.4%, indicating a significant shortfall in domestic self-sufficiency.
On the export front, China's total helium exports in 2025 reached 445 tons, a substantial year-on-year increase of 96%. Companies mainly exported products like bottled helium and liquid helium in tank containers, with these supplies primarily serving small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises globally. Overseas high-end semiconductor manufacturers still directly procure premium helium from traditional source countries like Qatar and the United States. In terms of total volume, helium exports accounted for a relatively low proportion of China's total supply in 2025, meaning the direct impact of export controls on the overall domestic supply is limited.
Zhang Wei indicated that the core purpose of the domestic helium export restriction policy is to secure essential demand for core domestic industries. Helium is an irreplaceable raw material in high-end fields such as semiconductors, healthcare, military and aerospace, nuclear fusion, AI computing power, and quantum computing. Restricting the outflow of this resource can effectively alleviate domestic structural supply shortages and prioritize the stable operation of key industries.
The deeper reason is to hedge against the risks of highly concentrated import supply. In 2025, China's helium imports were heavily reliant on a few sources, with Qatar accounting for 54% and Russia for 44%, together making up 98% of the import share. In March of this year, damage to Qatar's natural gas facilities, coupled with shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, nearly halted local helium supply. This directly triggered market volatility and significant price increases for helium globally and domestically. Although Russia resumed helium exports to China after the Dragon Boat Festival, the export license agreements require monthly renewal, resulting in severely insufficient supply stability.
A staff member from a listed company involved in the helium business stated that China is helium-poor, and domestic supply cannot fully meet the needs of local industries. However, some companies were exporting domestic helium. Now that this loophole is closed, it is beneficial for leading gas companies and domestic semiconductor industry chain clients, offering more supply options and competitive advantages, and contributing to the healthy development of both the gas and semiconductor sectors.
Achieving Technological Breakthroughs
Since 2020, China's helium industry has entered a phase of rapid growth, with domestic capacity and self-sufficiency rates significantly improving. By the end of 2025, domestic helium production capacity reached 15 million cubic meters, a 1066% increase from the end of 2020. The proportion of domestic helium supply rose from 4% to 15%. The core driver of this leapfrog development has been the comprehensive breakthrough in domestic helium extraction technology routes.
Liu Hongfei explained that the substantial breakthrough in China's helium extraction industry is due to national policy guidance and a full-industry-chain technology layout. Unlike overseas helium-rich gas sources that can use short-process purification, China's natural gas fields have low helium concentrations and complex impurities, making it impossible to directly copy mature foreign technologies. Domestic companies have specifically developed a customized process for extracting helium from the Boil-Off Gas (BOG) of LNG (liquefied natural gas) tail gas, adapting to local complex operating conditions and forging a differentiated domestic technological path.
The backdrop for this domestic technological breakthrough is China's natural resource deficiency. Global helium reserves total 51.9 billion cubic meters, with the United States alone holding 20.6 billion cubic meters. A few countries, including the US, Qatar, Russia, and Algeria, monopolize the vast majority of global helium resources, with their natural gas-associated gases having high helium content and strong economic viability for extraction. In contrast, the average helium abundance in China's natural gas fields is only 0.03%–0.05%, far below the 1%–7% level found in international helium-rich fields.
Relying on technological innovation, domestic companies have turned waste into treasure. BOG refers to the evaporation flash gas from LNG storage tanks, which was mostly vented or flared as industrial waste gas in the past. Zhongke Fuhai has tapped into the value of this waste resource, establishing a process chain of "tail gas recovery – rough separation and enrichment – cryogenic purification – liquefaction and filling," transforming industrial waste into high-purity helium. Simultaneously, the model of extracting helium locally at LNG plants eliminates the long-distance maritime shipping costs associated with imported liquid helium. Currently, the comprehensive cost of domestic BOG helium extraction is essentially on par with imported sources, making the cost-effectiveness of domestic supply increasingly evident.
The domestic helium extraction equipment market has now formed a diversified competitive landscape, with multiple technology routes including membrane separation, ambient temperature adsorption, and cryogenic distillation developing in parallel. Among these, cryogenic processing technology shows significant advantages in two core indicators: energy consumption and product purity, offering clear benefits for producing ultra-high-purity helium.
It is understood that Zhongke Fuhai has already reached project cooperation agreements with several oil fields of PetroChina. At the end of last month, the company also partnered with Sichuan Bahao Energy and Xuanhan Honghao Energy to jointly build a helium extraction industrial base from natural gas tail gas in eastern Sichuan, further improving production capacity layout in the southwest region.
The maturity of domestic technology has driven capacity expansion for multiple listed companies. A representative from Jovo Energy stated that the company's current helium production capacity has reached 1.5 million cubic meters, with core technology breakthroughs achieved. Their products are already widely used in commercial aerospace and new energy photovoltaic fields and are accelerating expansion into high-end semiconductor gas application scenarios, continuously broadening the application boundaries of domestic helium.
From a long-term planning perspective, China's helium production capacity has ample growth potential. Currently, planned and under-construction future new capacity exceeds 22 million cubic meters, with multiple listed companies announcing investment plans, indicating that future domestic self-sufficiency capabilities will continue to improve.
Reshaping the Supply Chain Landscape
Zhang Wei stated that the ongoing uncertainty of overseas helium sources is driving a restructuring of China's helium supply landscape. In the short term, export control is a key measure to lock in domestic gas sources and secure essential industrial demand. In the long term, domestic helium capacity will enter a period of concentrated release, and the helium recycling industry will also see development opportunities, building a domestic supply security barrier from the two dimensions of increased production and recycling.
The structure of import sources has already changed significantly. Since March this year, helium shipments from Qatar to China have sharply declined, with only small quantities arriving via detours in May and June, leading to a continuous drop in its domestic supply share. Russia has now become China's core import source.
As the quality and capacity of domestic helium continue to improve, downstream enterprises are seeking diversified supply sources. During the helium industry chain research tours organized by SCI in northwest China in April and June, the April tour saw higher registration interest. At that time, helium prices were high and supply was tight. Participating businesses covered three core groups: traders aiming to connect with upstream production companies and secure primary gas sources; industrial investors focusing on researching the feasibility of local extraction technology and resource development to plan capacity layout; and manufacturing end-users like semiconductor companies, who were primarily inspecting domestic helium production standards to assess the feasibility of switching gas sources and reducing import dependency risks.
Currently, most traders and end-user companies are diversifying their supplier base to mitigate supply disruption risks. Technically, the key impurity neon content in domestic high-purity helium has met standards, fully matching the stringent gas requirements of high-end semiconductor and aerospace fields. Previously, switching gas sources for end-users required lengthy equipment debugging, cost investment, and process adaptation certification. Most companies were reluctant to switch to ensure production stability. However, as geopolitical risks intensify, more high-end manufacturing firms are proactively engaging with domestic helium suppliers to complete qualification certification, accelerating the pace of domestic substitution.
The natural shortfall in resource endowment remains a core constraint on increasing domestic helium production. Domestic helium capacity is mainly concentrated in natural gas-rich regions of northwest and north China, such as Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Ningxia, and Xinjiang. Currently, the national level places high importance on the development of domestic helium resources, with PetroChina and various geological exploration units continuously intensifying resource exploration and technological research efforts.
In terms of the capacity ownership structure, the industry exhibits a characteristic of "state-owned enterprises as the mainstay, with private enterprises as supplements." The helium capacity of private enterprises like Jovo Energy and Kaimeite Gases is relatively small. For instance, Jovo Energy's helium business focuses on the aerospace sector, with its main operations still in liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas. Zhang Wei predicts that future domestic helium capacity increments will mainly rely on state-owned enterprises and LNG-plant-associated BOG extraction projects, with major capacity in the northwest essentially controlled by state-owned enterprises.
Multiple interviewed listed companies noted that their related business scales are relatively small. This is because the overall helium market is only worth tens of billions of yuan. The relevant listed companies primarily have natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and general industrial gases as their main businesses, with helium being only a supporting extended business. Its scale expansion is highly dependent on upstream gas source endowments.
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