A global shortage of helium, the lighter-than-air gas, has put a stop to the sale of inflatable Mickey Mouse heads at Disneyland in Tokyo, threatened parades during the US Thanksgiving holiday and disrupted university research.
全球氦气供应出现短缺,不仅导致东京迪士尼乐园(Disneyland)米老鼠(Mickey Mouse)头像气球断货,给美国感恩节期间的庆祝游行带来了麻烦,还对大学的研究工作造成了干扰。氦气是一种比空气轻的气体。
Global production of helium – used in industrial and medical applications, as well as toy dirigibles – has sharply fallen this year in the US and Algeria, the two biggest exporters.
全球两大氦气出口国——美国和阿尔及利亚——今年的氦气产量大幅下降。工业、医疗领域以及玩具充气飞艇都会使用到氦气。
Companies in Japan, the world’s leading helium importer, say they are looking to tap alternative, but more expensive, sources of supply in Qatar, Russia and Poland.
全球主要氦气进口国日本的企业表示,它们正将目光投向卡塔尔、俄罗斯和波兰等国的替代供应来源,不过这些来源的氦气价格较高。
However, because the supply disruptions come as demand in China and India is rising, the global market remains “tight, said Shi Quan, a trader in Shanghai. The squeeze represents the second big shortage for the $500m helium market in five years, after glitches in 2007 at a plant owned by ExxonMobil. Now, the focus is again the US, which provided almost four-fifths of the 180m cubic metres of helium consumed around the world last year.
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2020-09-15
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