China has imposed an immediate temporary ban on helium exports to protect domestic supplies of the critical semiconductor material as global disruptions intensify, reports Caixin.

The Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs announced the measure Friday, citing China’s foreign trade law. The ban is aimed at insulating the country’s high-tech manufacturing and medical sectors from worsening shortages caused by the Middle East conflict and Russian export controls.

Global helium supplies have been severely disrupted this year by the Iran war, which led to military attacks on QatarEnergy facilities in Ras Laffan Industrial City. QatarEnergy halted production of liquefied natural gas and related products in March, shutting three helium plants at the world’s largest helium production base and cutting global supply by about 30%.

China’s central bank added 480,000 ounces of gold to its reserves in June, its largest monthly purchase in a 20-month buying streak, reports Caixin. This came as global bullion prices slid from about $4,540 an ounce to around $4,000.

China’s official gold reserves rose to 75.4 million ounces at the end of June, according to data released Tuesday by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The June increase surpassed the 330,000 ounces added in December 2024 and extended a buying streak that began in November 2024 to 20 consecutive months. Over that period, the People’s Bank of China has added 2.6 million ounces of gold.

The accumulation underscores a broader push by central banks to diversify foreign-exchange portfolios and hedge against geopolitical risks, as a stronger US dollar and shifting interest-rate expectations weigh on global markets.

Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp, a major Chinese refiner backed by Saudi Aramco, is shutting a 200,000-barrel-per-day unit, reports Reuters. The refinery is bringing forward maintenance in response to the Middle East conflict’s impact on crude supply, it said on Tuesday.

Separately, another ‌Chinese refiner backed ⁠by Aramco, ⁠Fujian Refining and Petrochemical, or FREP, shut its 80,000 bpd crude unit—its smallest—or an unspecified amount of time, two industry sources familiar with the ​matter said.

China, the world’s biggest oil importer, sources half its crude from the Middle East.

Refiners in China, the world’s top oil importer, have enough supply on hand ‌to weather near-term disruption from the Iran conflict, reports Reuters citing traders. The supply is bolstered by recent record purchases of Iranian and Russian crude and robust government stockpiling. 

China has around 900 million barrels ​in strategic inventories, or 78 days’ worth of imports, according to estimates by Vortexa and traders.

“The market is ​on edge and the situation could change by the day,” a senior trader with a large independent refiner told Reuters. A second trader at ​a Shandong province-based plant that processes Iranian oil said he “couldn’t bring himself to bid” as he could not gauge how the situation would evolve. That said, there is not much concern about supplies for March and April deliveries, with abundant Russian and Iranian barrels, the trader added.

A large number of Chinese companies are facing disruption as a result of the Iran war, with many closing down operations, evacuating their staff and reconsidering how much can be done remotely as opposed to having people on the ground. The Morning Post said that WeRide, Meituan and Baidu were among the companies halting operations or instituting remote work.

China has taken great advantage of the stability of the Gulf States over the past few decades and the current volatility is having a huge impact on business, logistics and supplies, and calling into question all sorts of developments and plans. The indications are that the disruption is already serious and the longer the war goes on, the more impact it is going to have on the business operations of China and other countries in the Gulf States. 

The Gulf is a supplier of a significant portion of China’s total imports and the Strait of Hormuz is now closed. Reuters reports that China has about 78 days’ worth of oil stockpiled, which means it is somewhat cushioned from the impact of the disruption to the world’s oil supplies. But 78 days is not a particularly long period of time, Trump has suggested the war could go on for 4-5 weeks or longer, and apart from the resumption of oil supplies from the Gulf, there is the question of the longer-term future of Iran as the supplier of oil to China. This level of disruption presents many scenarios in terms of outcomes, from the very negative for China to the very positive, a positive being China providing reconstruction services for all. But right now, uncertainties rule.