Lubbock area businesses on Monday reacted to a worldwide helium shortage. Balloons, a popular party favor, are among the products affected.
“This is the second time this has happened. It happened about five years ago and then recently right before Thanksgiving. We were informed we would not get as much helium as we used to,” said Robby Bunch, owner of Balloons by the Bunch.
Helium is used in many industries including medicine, the military, and space exploration.
While Helium is available, Howell Brandenburg with AirGas, a company that sells Helium said, the supply and demand is largely imbalanced across the world. The company’s suppliers in the Americas, Middle East, and Russia are in short supply.
“The current state of the market is unbalanced due to planned and unplanned production outages affecting sources all over the world,” he said. “The U.S. has used tremendous amounts of its current supply.”
According to Bunch, helium prices spiked in the last month, costing triple the average amount.
“The first thing you do is you have to raise your prices. Instead of a balloon being 75 cents, they are like $1.50 and now they are up to $1.72 because of helium increases,” he said.
The helium division of the Bureau of Land Management said it could be three to five years before the helium supply is stable again. However, multiple party companies across town said they are prepared.
“We’ve learned to do stuff differently now. We are doing air filled balloons which don’t require helium, just stands,” said Bunch.
