From the September 2012 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


“There is just no helium available to do cool downs,” says David Baldwin, vice president of Cool Pair Plus. “We have probably turned away at least ten cool downs in the last two months, just because there is no helium available. And again, those ten cool downs required maybe 50,000 liters of helium.”

Until helium’s cup runneth over once more, suppliers will need to increase charges, as the limited stores have pushed up their own costs. The BLM is raising helium prices, up by $8.25 from the previous fiscal year to a total of $84 per thousand cubic feet in the upcoming fiscal year.


“As the supply managed by the BLM diminishes, the price per liter will continue to rise as the newer sources will be more costly,” says Jeff Fall, president of Oxford Instruments Service, LLC, which provides storage and maintenance of cold magnets, helium top up services in the field, as well as cool down services on a variety of magnet models.

Although dim, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. Many plants are re-opening in the coming months, while new plants and supplies in the Middle East will become more significant two to five years from now, according to Scott Silcock, Toshiba America Medical Systems’ director of service logistics management. This could extend resources for at least the next 100 years.

“We anticipate from our suppliers that we will start to see an increase in helium come September, because those plants will be back online,” says Joyner. “We have been managing the helium for all of our contract customers very carefully. The supply is not going to be fully online until 2013, when Qatar comes online.”

As more customers focus on conservation and preventive maintenance, Baldwin believes the issue will balance itself out after Q1 of 2013.

Conservation through preventive maintenance
Historically, it was common for MRI system owners to decline regular preventive maintenance contracts. It was only when a system had been run to death that service providers would be called in to save the day. But that attitude was prevalent when helium was plentiful and cheap. With today’s helium costs, end users can no longer afford to ignore MRI keep cold and cool down services.

The MRI industry uses close to 28 percent of the world’s helium supplies, according to research done by Moses Chen, a professor with the University of Pennsylvania. But helium utilization is slowly abating. According to the U.S. Geological Survey’s statistics, in 2011, 56 million cubic meters of helium were used, compared with 74 million cubic meters consumed in 2007.

September 2012 Magazine

Read more stories from the September 2012 issue

More Industry Reports