We have a world wide helium crisis shortage. Why did it start? It goes much further than a simple lack of natural resource.<\/p>\n
From an industry article:<\/strong><\/p>\n Greg Nash of AGP Helium spike about the shortage. Nash informed us that it began in June 2017 when the ports in Qatar were blocked by their surrounding countries. \u201cQatar produces almost 30 percent of the world\u2019s helium,\u201d said Nash. \u201cThe countries bordering it accused them of supporting terrorism and harboring terrorists.\u201d This is where the shortage originated.<\/p>\n Other factors include increased space exploration, more MRI machines being used around the world (helium is used to cool MRI magnets). The automobile industry started using helium in airbags to minimize burns, caused by previous chemical reaction used to inflate the bags. And the US Bureau of Land Management controls the inventory of almost 70 percent of the world\u2019s helium. They auction off a portion of the helium once each year. The auction was held in September, where the helium was sold for 135 percent more than it sold for the previous year.<\/p>\n Companies, retailers, and consumers are feeling the effects of this shortage. And they\u2019re not sure what to do, or when it will end. Dan Flynn with Qualatex has been noticing mixed signals from helium suppliers regarding the expected shortage timeframe. \u201cMost estimates are the supply will be restricted through this year, though availability should increase in 2020,\u201d he said. Helium has, however, been discovered in Tanzania and Russia. The extraction from these sources will take time, but we can expect the infrastructure to be put in place in the next couple of years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We have a world wide helium crisis shortage. Why did it start? It goes much further than a simple lack of natural resource. From an industry [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balloonsbearingelegance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balloonsbearingelegance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balloonsbearingelegance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balloonsbearingelegance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balloonsbearingelegance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/balloonsbearingelegance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2400,"href":"https:\/\/balloonsbearingelegance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions\/2400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balloonsbearingelegance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balloonsbearingelegance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balloonsbearingelegance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balloonsbearingelegance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNash echoed Flynn\u2019s findings \u2026 in a way. He said the price of helium isn\u2019t expected to drop to the low levels we\u2019re used to, for the next several years at least. \u201cAs more sources and more technology becomes available, prices will level out,\u201d he said. Until then, it\u2019s going to be a rough road for helium-filled party d\u00e9cor.<\/p>\n