New Delhi: The Iranian strikes on Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City on 2 March have sent a jolt through global helium markets, and the tremors have begun to reach India’s radiology suites.
New installations of MRI scans, which doctors rely on to diagnose a host of ailments including cancers, neurological disorders and cardiac conditions, could become more expensive if the supply crunch deepens, radiologists and medical technology companies like Siemens told ThePrint.
Qatar accounts for roughly one-third of the world’s helium supply. Helium is not drilled for separately—it is recovered as a byproduct of LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) processing. This matters because when QatarEnergy, the state-owned company that runs the Gulf nation’s entire gas export infrastructure, declared force majeure—meaning it can no longer honour contracts due to circumstances beyond its control—on its gas shipments after the Iranian strikes, helium exports stopped too.
The cascading effect of the disruption is now being felt in India. However, an MRI blackout—a scenario most feared—is unlikely, industry experts told ThePrint. Most of India’s currently installed MRI machines have already shifted to modern technology requiring dramatically less helium and almost no routine refills. The disruption in the helium supply chain will mostly be restricted to hospitals planning new installations and diagnostic centres still running older equipment.
“While the situation has introduced challenges, we have maintained operational continuity through diversified sourcing,” said Hariharan Subramanian, managing director of Siemens Healthcare Private Limited, the Bengaluru-based arm of the German-listed Siemens Healthineers AG, which specialises in medical technology and imaging.
How Qatar affects your MRI scan
Qatar accounts for roughly one-third of the world’s helium supply. It is essential for MRI machines because it cools superconducting magnets to temperatures close to -269°C, or 4 Kelvin. Without the cooling, a scanner cannot function.
The disruption’s ripple effects are hitting vendors who had already locked in supply commitments at older prices.
“Equipment manufacturers and suppliers are facing a rise in the cost of helium for orders they have already committed to. The challenge is that they cannot easily pass on these costs to hospitals after prices have been agreed,” said Dr Bharat Aggarwal, Director of Radiology Services at Max Healthcare, New Delhi.
“Higher helium and logistics costs may push up the price of MRI equipment, delaying planned purchases,” he told ThePrint.
The broader economic pressure is adding to the strain.
“Energy costs have increased 1.5 to 2 times, directly impacting industrial gases, including helium, and adding to overall cost pressures in the system,” said Dr Jitendra Sharma, managing director and founder CEO of Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone (AMTZ), which is India’s largest medical device manufacturing cluster that supports the production, testing, and innovation of healthcare equipment.
Why India will not see an MRI blackout
Of India’s estimated 4,800 installed MRI machines across public and private sectors, most use zero boil-off (ZBO) technology—the liquid helium sealed inside does not evaporate during normal operation, staying locked in a closed refrigeration loop that continuously recycles it, explained Dr Harsh Mahajan, founder and managing director of Mahajan Imaging & Labs, which runs diagnostic centres across Delhi-NCR.
“If today I buy a machine, which is filled with liquid helium and if it’s at 90 per cent, then four years down the line also it will be at 90 per cent—as long as the machine keeps functioning and there is no leakage,” he said.
Only around 100–200 of India’s installed machines use older technology requiring periodic top-ups—a fraction Dr Mahajan called “really immaterial”. “The installed base of MRI scanners in this country will not face any problem,” he told ThePrint.
How is the price of MRI impacted
The cost pressure, while not catastrophic, is now quantifiable.
According to estimates shared by AMTZ with ThePrint, helium prices have climbed from historical levels of around $30–35 per litre to $50 or more, pushing overall installation costs up by 3-7 per cent and MRI system prices—which typically range between Rs 5 crore and Rs 15 crore for 1.5T to 3T machines—by roughly 5 to 10 per cent.
The sharpest impact is at the operational end. A single helium refill event, which previously cost around Rs 25 lakh, can now run to Rs 35 lakh or higher, a 20 to 50 per cent increase depending on how contracts are structured, with older magnet systems and fully imported bundled contracts bearing a steeper burden.
“Helium was never the dominant cost driver in an MRI project, but it has now become a meaningful contributor to overall project economics—especially for new installations,” said AMTZ MD Dr Sharma.
Pressure points: New installations & older machines
The impact, industry experts said, will concentrate in two areas.
New MRI machines are shipped with pre-filled liquid helium, but some is lost during transit, requiring a top-up during installation. “That responsibility lies with the equipment manufacturers—companies like GE, Siemens, and Philips—which coordinate with helium suppliers. There may be some disruption there, but it is not a direct problem for hospitals or diagnostic centres,” Dr Mahajan said.
An industry source at a Bengaluru-based medical technology company told ThePrint that a helium shortage is underway, though his company sources the gas from multiple vendors across the Middle East and Europe, giving it some supply flexibility.
“As of now, none of the three major manufacturers—Siemens, GE Healthcare, and Philips Healthcare—have passed increased costs on to hospital customers,” he said.
The second pressure point is older machines. Older MRI machines (1997–2005) lose about 1–3 per cent of their helium each month, which means they need frequent refills and are more expensive to maintain. These machines typically require refilling when helium levels fall to 40–60 per cent to avoid a shutdown. With helium now scarcer and costlier, those routine refills will become more expensive.
Dr Arjun Narula, an onco-radiologist who runs the Narula Diagnostics Centre across four facilities in Haryana and Rajasthan, told ThePrint that he has deferred a planned upgrade by at least six months.
‘Technology is the long-term answer’
Manufacturers are pointing to a technology shift as a durable solution. Newer machines (post-2005) use zero boil-off technology that recycles helium internally, resulting in minimal loss and allowing them to operate for 7–10 years without needing a refill, making them more durable and cost-effective.
The next generation goes further—helium-free MRI systems that use minimal or no liquid helium for cooling their magnets. Instead, they rely on alternative cooling technologies like conduction cooling. This reduces dependence on helium, lowers maintenance needs, cuts costs, and makes MRI systems more stable, compact, and easier to install.
“Technology transition is critical—low-helium MRI systems can reduce helium requirement from around 1,500 litres to less than 20 litres, while zero boil-off and helium-free technologies are emerging as long-term solutions,” said Divya Patil, material scientist at AMTZ.
Siemens has already moved in this direction. “We have introduced helium-free MRIs with proactive adoption of DryCool technology, requiring less than 1 litre of helium,” Subramanian said.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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