The US has become the main supplier of helium to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and its market share will likely continue to grow. This is the conclusion of the analysis of customs data that has been done Nikkei Asiawhich places Washington as the great beneficiary of a crisis that combines the war of USA and Israel against Iran and the export restrictions imposed by Beijing.
Be that as it may, it is not a minor trend. Helium is an irreplaceable gas during the chip manufacturing process because it is necessary for cooling wafers and in plasma etching or photolithography. In this context Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are three of semiconductor ecosystems most important on the planet, with TSMC, Samsung and SK hynix at the helm, all of them redirecting part of their supply towards the United States.
The trigger has been twofold. On the one hand, the crisis in the Middle East has cast doubt on the Asian supply chain amid fears that a de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz further complicate access to helium and liquefied natural gas. And on this already unstable ground, China has decided to tighten the screws as much as possible.
China has turned off the tap at a very delicate moment
The Chinese Government announced on July 10 a temporary veto with immediate effect to helium exportsrelying on its Foreign Trade Law and without giving further explanations. The Ministry of Commerce and the Chinese Customs Administration frame this measure in the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, which threatens to cause new bottlenecks in a gas essential for manufacturing integrated circuits.
China only produces domestically around 15% or less of the helium it consumes
However, at this juncture we are interested in specifying China’s real weight in this market. This country only produces internally around 15% or less of the helium it consumes, so depends on imports from Qatarwhich generates approximately a third of the world’s supply. For this reason, its dependence on the outside borders on critical levels, with estimates that range between 80% and 90%.
A quick note before moving forward: Helium is irreplaceable in semiconductor manufacturing because it cannot be synthesized industrially. It is extracted from natural gas deposits with unusually high concentrations of this element, and is used in wafer cooling, plasma etching, chemical and atomic layer deposition, lithography support, and leak detection.
Japan and South Korea, exposed in a very different way
The exposure of each country to this scenario varies significantly. In 2025, Japan was already obtaining around 60% of its helium imports from the US and 37% from Qatar, which has allowed it to pivot relatively quickly. South Korea, on the other hand, depended on Qatar for 64.7% of its importsa fact that has forced Samsung and SK hynix to move urgently and accept higher prices in new long-term contracts with Linde and Air Products.
Helium now joins the rare earths, gallium, germanium and graphite as another chapter in the geopolitical struggle
The manufacturing of memory chips is very demanding with the consumption of this gas due to the repeated high-temperature etching and deposition processes required by advanced 3D stacking. Many semiconductor industry analysts expect that American industrial supplierssuch as Air Products, Linde or ExxonMobil, are the big beneficiaries of the tightening of global supply.
Be that as it may, helium now joins the rare earths, gallium, germanium and graphite as another chapter in the geopolitical struggle for the resources that support the semiconductor industry.
Image | Yuri Shkoda
More information | Nikkei Asia
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