RE: Holiday Read4 Apr 2026 22:10
Gogs, the attack on Iran by the US has rolled out a double blow for China, with the Qatar Energy strike acting as a secondary effect of the war.
Firstly, the US are now the worlds largest supplier of helium as 'THE' key critical gas in making AI quality standard of chips. Secondly, a quote provided by Perplexity states - "China imports about 85% of its helium, and of that imported volume roughly 54–62% comes from Qatar, depending on the source and year.
Key figures around Qatar’s share
A recent Caixin report states that 54% of China’s helium imports are sourced from Qatar Energy.
A securities‑industry analysis on East Money notes that about 62% of China’s helium imports come from Qatar in 2025–2026, with 14.04 million cubic meters shipped from Qatar that year.
Academic work on global helium flows shows that Qatar has historically supplied over 80% of China’s helium imports in some years (e.g., around 2021), before diversification toward Russia and others increased.
So, for today’s structure, a reasonable consolidated answer is: of China’s 85% imported helium, roughly 55–60% comes from Qatar, with older data showing episodes as high as 80%."
Qatar represents more than half of all China's imported Helium.
America now dictates the Helium market and China will be keen to secure the Rukwa deal as their AI plan relies on access to it, especially given the proximity of Tanzania to China. The US will want to secure a deal because they will want control the supply chain. It's very much a watch this space. 🤔
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