What does China's helium purification breakthrough mean for global supply dynamics?

What does China's helium purification breakthrough mean for global supply dynamics?
China's 2024 helium purification breakthroughs—vacuum cold boxes extracting 99.9998% purity from LNG tail gas and 6N-grade production from coal-bed methane—have upended a century of US dominance. The result: 8 million m3 of US helium inventory went unsold, international prices dropped 30%, and China's import dependency fell from 95% to 43.4%. Domestic capacity reached 17.65 million m3 by 2025, covering natural gas, LNG tail gas and coal-bed methane routes. Key equipment localization rose from 30% to 80%. While US still leads with 48% of global output, its federal reserve is depleted and shale gas yields declining. China's technology exports to Russia and Africa are building an alternative supply network, eroding the US pricing grip.