China is temporarily blocking helium exports, a key element for chipmaking, as the Iran war's escalation disrupts global supply
  • joekar1990@lemmy.worldEnglish
    231·
    4 days ago

    That’s not good. China and Qatar together produce about 35% of the worlds helium. This coupled with Russia recently halting all diesel fuel exports until at least the end of July indicates to me that the next wave of ripples from the start of the Iran war are starting to arrive.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
      14·
      4 days ago

      This is roughly the time line that experts suggested incidentally. There was a couple of month of backlog that was being cleared, and now it’s gone and reserves are starting to get low. So, there’s no way to hide fuel shortages or associated byproducts like helium now. Also a fun fact is that helium can’t be stockpiled and relies on constant production.

    • jrs100000@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      4 days ago

      Thats not true at all. The US is about 43%, and Qatar about 33%, Russia about 9%, and China less than 2%.

      • joekar1990@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        4 days ago

        You are correct and I apologize for the incorrect number combining Qatar and China. While the us is one of the biggest helium producers if the US is trying to fill the gap that’s happening from countries not being able to export or banning exports it’s only going to continue to drive prices higher. Unless demand destruction occurs prices will continue to go higher in my opinion.

    • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      25·
      4 days ago

      Squeezing sparks wars; the biggest example had to be the oil squeezing that was perpetrated on imperial Japan and led directly to the pearl harbor bombing.

      • Nonconfrontational@lemmy.ml
        8·
        3 days ago

        Maybe America shouldn’t have committed perfidy by blowing up the Muslim pope and his family, and then double tapping 200 little girls.

      • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
        10·
        4 days ago

        eh, they are already warmongering around the world because of their slow collapse. they brought this squeeze upon themselves by attacking iran out of the blue.