Dear AMMRL,
Recently I posted a query about LHe costs, since for many of us this is our
biggest single continuing expense. I have summarized the results, and then
listed the redacted individual replies.
AVERAGE HELIUM COST: $4.67/L
This was the average, but there was a big variation in what we are paying
for helium. I have not exhaustively analyzed the results but the variation0
in cost does not seem to correlate with location. Some people pay as low
as $2.75/liter and other pay $6 or more per liter.
Delivery: $25 average
Dewar rental $7.5 average
NOTE: These numbers are averages of those who are actually paying for
delivery or rental; most people pay for neither.
Conclusion: Some of us (like the respondent who is paying $80 per dewar
delivery charge) may want to look more closely at our helium costs, andnegotiate with another vendor if possible. The delivery and dewar rental
charges in particular seem arbitrary, but then so does the price of the
helium. The vendors delivering helium at less than $4 liter without rental
or delivery charges presumably are still turning a profit on the deal.
********************
We pay $4.60/liter from Matheson-Trigas. I should add that this company has
a contract with our university for all gas deliveries. They come out here
once a week anyway and so I don't have to pay anything extra for shipping.
There is no charge for dewar rental if I return it promptly (after one
week). Location: New Mexico
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Iowa university contract with Air Products as sole supplyer for gases & L
He; my last statement from 12/05/02 was for $377 for a 100 Liter Dewar.
for 100 liter Dewars statements for several previous months:
05/23/02 $380
06/13/02 $368
08/22/02 $433
09/30/02 $403
10/31/02 $393
12/05/02 $377
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$4.17/l, no delivery charges.
Air Products, Northwest Arkansas.
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$4.48/liter (100 liter dewar) or $4.54/liter (60 liter dewar)
Any other charges such as delivery costs?
No charge for delivery unless emergency delivery
Lastly, your location and supplier.
Central california/Praxair
I******************************
All companies increased the price for liquid helium last year by
20%. If you have to pay this increased price now, maybe you have
a long term contract.
Our price actually is 6,20 €/l (+ tax), this is about 6 $/l.
We have to buy at least 2000 l annually. There are no further
costs (delivery, rent of the can).
Location: Germany
Here are some maybe interesting links:
nice remarks from the Bureau of Land Management
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/helium/
scheme of helium production Helium (Bild von Praxair)
http://www.praxair.com/praxair.nsf/AllContent/999EEE6BD4DEAF258525656900606F61
?OpenDocument&Menu=&ThemeId=339999&View=LeftNavMenu&Expand=
new helium plant in algeria from Linde
http://www.linde-process-
engineering.com/en/p0002a/p0002a.jsp?produktion=true&oid=4262
The impact of the selling of the federal helium reserve
http://books.nap.edu/books/0309070384/html/14.html#pagetop
***************
I pay about 4.70/L and I buy 100L/65 days.
Location: North Carolina
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We're on Long Island and are supplied in Helium by Praxair. They charge us
$3.5 per liter delivered in 250 liter dewars (the price per liter is higher
for smaller dewars) and a $25 flat delivery fee (regardless of the amount
ordered).
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I am getting LHe from Praxair for $2.75/L with no extra costs.
Location: Michigan
************
We pay $4.25 per liter. We order a 100 L Dewar every six months. Delivery
is free. Dewar rental is free for the first seven days, and $10 per day
thereafter.
Location: New York
*******************************
We are in Missouri, and we get liq. He from BOC Gases. The price is
$4.25/L, and they used to add $3 charge for each dewar , now seems like
they havn't been charging it.
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Liq He price: $4.50/liter
Delivery charge: $10
Rental charge: 15 free days and then $5/per day thereafter.
Location: San Diego, California
Supplier: Prax Air
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We're still paying $5.00 /l , from BOC Gases.
**********************************
Location: Tennessee
$4.7/Liter for 100L dewar and $5.73 for 60L dewar
delivery charge: around $80 per 100L tank
supplier: Praxair
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We pay $6.50 per liter from U.S. Cylinder Gas Company.
Location: Illinois
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In Puerto Rico we have two suppliers: Air Products and Praxair.
My supplier is Air Products (AP) and the price is $4.00/liter. No delivery
charges.
I don't remember how much is the cost with Praxair, but it is higher.
I'm not sure if they (AP) are planning to increase the cost, but if they do
it, I think that could be close to $4.25/liter.
***************************************8
We pay 4.74 per liter. I don't think there are any other charges.
My supplier is local, Haun Welding, and I'm not sure where he gets his.
We are located in central New York, where there's lots of snow, but the
cost of living isn't to great, certainly not like CA.
Good luck. We've not heard about a price rise here.
*****************************
$5.50/liter
No other charges
My location: South Carolina. Supplier: National Welders. Charlotte, NC
**********************
We pay $459.13 for 100 L dewar.
Supplier Airgas. Location: Mass.
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I've recently switched from Praxair, which charged over $6.00/L plus freight
($75) plus demurrage, making a typical 100L purchase run around $800.
Now I purchase through a local Air Products distributor at $5.00/L plus a
flat $55 hazmat/demurrage fee if the dewar is returned within 7 days.
He also warned me that they were anticipating price increases sometime in
the New Year, that would have to be passed along to me.
Finally, I purchase only 100L every two months so perhaps the deal isn't as
good as other larger volume depts get.
Location: Kentucky
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We paid $5.05 a liter back in Sept. 2002. Our supplier is Weiler Welding
and they also supply all our gas cylinders. I'm not sure if there is a
delivery charge since the He is delivered with the cylinders. Miani U is
in Oxford, Ohio, about 40 miles from Cincinnati. However, the liquid He
comes from Grove City, OH which is near Columbus, OH about 150 miles.
There is a major liquid He supply there for the state since it is centrally
located. The liquid He is delivered to Weiler's production facility in
Morraine, OH which is South of Dayton and is about 50 miles from Oxford.
Interestingly, Air Products is in Middletown, OH about 25 miles from
Oxford, but their liq. He is much more expensive ($6-7).
**********************************
We are paying $3.75/L. There are no shipping costs.
We get the LHe from BOC and they have a local distribution
center.
Location: Ohio
*************************
We are currently paying $5/liter, plus $10.95 shipping, and $10
handling/per delivery.
Our supplier is BOC gases out of Acton, MA.
*************************
We pay CDN$637 for 100L, this includes dewar charges, delivery and all
taxes, this is ~US$390. The charge is CDN$5.50 per L of liquid helium.
Location: Ontario, Canada
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We pay $6.60 per liter. This comes from our Physics Department so there
is little transfer loss and we get credit for unused helium.
************************
Praxair charges us $4.50/l for 100 l. I am told that
Praxair charges the medical center $3.50/l for 250 l.
We pay dewar rental charges of $20 for 100 l dewars,
$15 for 60 l dewars, and $10 for 30 l dewars. I do
not know what the rental charge for 250 l dewars is.
We are in Indianapolis, IN. Praxair supplys our
liquid He out of their Gary/E. Chicago, IN plant.
PRAXAIR $3.95/liter for 60 liters
no extra delivery charges
Location: Mass.
We have been able to negotiate a price for ~$3.86/L of liquid helium, and we
are not charged for delivery, probably for all of the business that we send
their way and that they are the exclusive supplier for our campus. We use
Messer.
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Here we are about to sign a new contract for 3 years with Messer Cie.
for a 400 Avance wide bore we need 200 l/year
for each quarterly refill we order 50 l + 31$ delivery + safety tax = 350
$ total or Euro for 50l
i.e. 7$/l all included
actually sometimes we only receive 40l, and a unilateral price increase
was applied by Messer this summer beside the contractual price under the
shortage argument !!
tell us asap if their proposal is reasonable
Location: France
******************
In the Chicago area we're paying $5.00/liter from Airgas.
Delivery is included.
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$3.65/liter. $3.00 delivery. BOC gases. Los Angeles area.
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We pay $525 for a 100 L dewar of liquid He. Prest-O-Sales, located in Long
Island City, New York, is our supplier.
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I had to dig, but it looks like we are paying $4.75 per liter, which
seems really low to me. We get ours from B.O.C. gasses in Kansas, and
the entire University has a contract with them (which might explain the
low price).
**********************************************
at the moment we are paying 4.20 Euro which roughly corrresponds to 4.20 $per
liter liquid helium.
Extra charges are only rental costs of the helium vessels for the time standing
in our department (15 Euro per day)
I am working in the vicinity of the big german cities Cologne and Duesseldorf
*************************************
Responding to your survey questions;
$6.00/liter for a 100liter dewar. Smaller dewars are more expensive.
There are no delivery fees with this supplier.
We are in VA and our middle man is MR Resources. Our LHe is
supplied by BOC Gases and comes in from Research Triangle Park, NC.
*******************************
We pay around $5/liter. Ames Lab has been liquefying for >20 years.
All of our magnets are connected to a 2" copper line that leads
back to their liquefier. No problems observed in 20 years but I
think that the back pressure doesn't vary much.
A few years ago, recycling didn't keep any more helium on earth.
The natural gas refiners weren't collecting helium from all the
ng anyway. If we recycled more, they collected less. I imagine
that has changed now. Its amazing we let Reagan get rid of the
national helium reserve.
*************************
Jeffrey S. de Ropp, Ph.D.
NMR Facility
UC Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis CA 95616
jsderopp_at_ucdavis.edu
530-752-7677 office
530-752-6480 Lab
530-752-5682 Lab
530-752-3516 Fax
NMR Facility Web site URL is:
http://www.nmr.ucdavis.edu/
Received on Fri Jan 24 2003 - 18:08:46 MST