Supply shocks hit fertilizers, helium
- Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz have choked fertilizer and helium flows since late February, leaving farmers, chipmakers and hospitals exposed to shortages. - United Nations and industry data show ship transits through Hormuz fell about 95%, while Qatar’s Ras Laffan outage removed roughly one-third of helium supply. - Food and factory risks are persisting even after a fragile ceasefire, with fertilizer prices still elevated. (unctad.org)
The Strait of Hormuz disruption has hit two obscure but basic inputs at once: fertilizer for crops and helium for chips and medical equipment. (news.un.org) (cnbc.com) Fertilizer matters because modern farming runs on nitrogen products such as urea and ammonia, and helium matters because chip plants and magnetic resonance imaging scanners use it for cooling and precision work. (unctad.org) (cnbc.com) The shock started after hostilities on February 28, 2026, and shipping through Hormuz then dropped from an average of 129 daily transits in February to 6 in March, according to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development data. (unctad.org) (news.un.org) That matters for fertilizer because the Gulf is both a producer and a route. The Food and Agriculture Organization said 20% to 30% of fertilizer flows were not moving, while The Fertilizer Institute said nearly 50% of global urea exports originate west of the strait and pass through it. (news.un.org) (tfi.org) Natural gas prices added a second hit. Nitrogen fertilizer is made from gas, and UNCTAD said oil rose 27% and European gas 74% between February 27 and March 9, pushing production costs higher even where plants kept running. (unctad.org) Helium is tighter for a different reason. Qatar produced more than one-third of global supply before the war, and CNBC reported strikes on QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan Industrial City halted output at the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas export complex, where helium is made as a byproduct. (cnbc.com) Chipmaking is one of the clearest pressure points. Helium is used in photolithography and heat transfer inside semiconductor fabrication, and CNBC cited the Semiconductor Industry Association saying a disruption would likely send shocks through global chip production. (cnbc.com) Food prices have not fully reacted yet because inventories and earlier harvests bought time. But Food and Agriculture Organization economists told UN News that cargoes loaded before the crisis had already arrived, and the tighter phase would come when replacement shipments failed to show up. (news.un.org) A ceasefire announced on April 8 did not reset the system. UN News reported that shipowners and insurers were still reluctant to send vessels through the corridor, and University of Illinois researchers said U.S. nitrogen fertilizer prices kept climbing through mid-April. (news.un.org) (farmdocdaily.illinois.edu) The result is a supply-chain problem that is less visible than an oil spike and slower than a port shutdown. Fertilizer shortages show up a planting season later, and helium shortages show up as longer lead times and production risk in fabs, factories and hospitals. (carnegieendowment.org) (c4mr.org) That is why the Hormuz shock is reaching beyond energy markets. It is constraining the raw materials that feed crops and cool machines, and both bottlenecks are still unresolved at the end of April. (unctad.org) (news.un.org)
