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What do you mean by 'fix'? Who set it? I understand the US privatized its reserve, but I don't understand how the market seems so out-of-step with reality. What

What do you mean by 'fix'? Who set it? I understand the US privatized its reserve, but I don't understand how the market seems so out-of-step with reality. What about other markets? EU, SE Asia - are they seeing the same low prices?

rincebrain 10y ago
The US fixed its price below the cost to extract it for anyone, which has effectively kept the market there until their supply runs out.
- eru 10y ago
  I wonder why someone doesn't just buy the lot from them at their low prices, and scalps it?
  - rincebrain 10y ago
    Well, [1] says they sold it at 3.43 USD per m^3 to non-government customers in 2014, and if they have over a billion m^3, it would require over 3.43 billion USD to accomplish. In addition to that, they'd then need to have a helium storage facility that could accommodate such an enormous reserve, the construction and maintenance of which might eat all of the profit from resale which might ensue. All of this presuming the government would sell a sole bidder their entire reserve in one fell swoop. [1] - http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/helium/mcs-2015-heliu.pdf http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/helium/mcs-...
    - eru 10y ago
      You could still make money at a larger scale (given a cheap enough storage facility): buy helium now, sell when more expensive. You'd have to wait. If you could buy the whole lot now, you could make the profit straight away. If storing the helium plus interest rates actually costs more than the expected price increase over time warrants----then the US government _should_ sell off the reserve now, and the whole thing about them selling too cheaply is nonsense. Though it might be that the US government can store helium cheaper than anyone else. In that case, perhaps they should sell the helium with the storage facilities? After all, what good are the storage facilities to them, when they've sold all the helium?
gozur88 10y ago
It's a global market. When the US decided to sell off the Strategic Helium Reserve, it pushed the price of helium below the cost of extraction.

rincebrain 10y ago

The US fixed its price below the cost to extract it for anyone, which has effectively kept the market there until their supply runs out.

eru 10y ago
I wonder why someone doesn't just buy the lot from them at their low prices, and scalps it?
- rincebrain 10y ago
  Well, [1] says they sold it at 3.43 USD per m^3 to non-government customers in 2014, and if they have over a billion m^3, it would require over 3.43 billion USD to accomplish. In addition to that, they'd then need to have a helium storage facility that could accommodate such an enormous reserve, the construction and maintenance of which might eat all of the profit from resale which might ensue. All of this presuming the government would sell a sole bidder their entire reserve in one fell swoop. [1] - http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/helium/mcs-2015-heliu.pdf http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/helium/mcs-...
  - eru 10y ago
    You could still make money at a larger scale (given a cheap enough storage facility): buy helium now, sell when more expensive. You'd have to wait. If you could buy the whole lot now, you could make the profit straight away. If storing the helium plus interest rates actually costs more than the expected price increase over time warrants----then the US government _should_ sell off the reserve now, and the whole thing about them selling too cheaply is nonsense. Though it might be that the US government can store helium cheaper than anyone else. In that case, perhaps they should sell the helium with the storage facilities? After all, what good are the storage facilities to them, when they've sold all the helium?

gozur88 10y ago

It's a global market. When the US decided to sell off the Strategic Helium Reserve, it pushed the price of helium below the cost of extraction.