Helium prices up

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Have you priced a helium filled balloon lately? 

If you can get one, odds are it will cost you plenty more than it did a few months ago. 

There's a world-wide shortage of Helium and that's not just hot air. 

Flowers are Janet Smither's business at Bokay Florist in Indianapolis. 

Balloons are part of the business too.

Having enough helium to fill them, is getting tougher by the day.

"My supplier said when my tank runs out, it will be on a waiting list, we will be on a waiting list," she says, pointing to the helium tank in her store. 

"We're saving it," she says.  

"A lot of balloons go out with flowers anymore. I can't get them helium at all. There's none for me to get," says Dan Garner, who works at Sutton-Garten in Indianapolis. 

Sutton-Garten supplies helium and other gas to welders, florists and businesses that use it. 

Garner says he has plenty of orders from local florists that can't be filled.

It's so tough to get helium these days, Garner calls it the golden gas.

"It was about $130 for a big bottle and now we're up to over $200, that' s only if I can get it," he says.  

Helium is used extensively in the welding and medical fields.

MRI machines need the gas to keep running properly.

"It's more preferable that it's used in the helium in the medical than it is to use it for balloons," says Garner.  

Helium, a by product of natural gas, is produced by the US government which supplies nearly 75% of the worlds market.

By law, the Government has to get out of the business, which it's doing.

But the private sector has been slow to pick up the slack, and has had problems getting new helium plants on line.

Which is why Bokay now charges 5 dollars to fill a mylar balloon with helium, 40% higher than just a few months ago.

A new privately owned helium plant in Wyoming was supposed to be on line by the end of this year, but problems have delayed it.

So supplies continue to be tight.

The medical field gets first dibs on what's available.

So far, there are no problems reported for it.

But when it comes to balloons, expect the shortage to continue for at least a few more months.