China’s natural gas imports, including pipeline gas and LNG, increased slightly in June compared to the same month last year, according to customs data.
Natural gas imports during the last month reached about 10.42 million tonnes, rising just 0.4 percent compared to some 10.38 million tonnes in June 2023, the data from the General Administration of Customs shows.
China paid about $4.99 billion for gas imports last month.
During January-June, China’s gas imports reached 64.65 million tonnes, a rise of 14.3 percent year-on-year.
The world’s largest LNG importer paid about $31.7 billion for gas imports in January-June, down 0.8 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
There is currently no official data for LNG imports in June.
In January this year, China’s LNG import terminals took 7.25 million tonnes of LNG, up by 22.9 percent year-on-year, in February LNG imports rose by 15.2 percent to 5.95 million tonnes, in March LNG imports increased by 25.1 percent to 6.65 million tonnes, while in April the country received 6.22 million tonnes of LNG, up by 31.5 percent year-on-year, customs data previously showed.
China’s LNG imports increased by 18.1 percent to 32.42 million tonnes in January-May, while May LNG imports increased just 3.4 percent to 6.57 million tonnes.
The slowdown in May LNG imports could be attributed to the rise in prices.
Chinese buyers were buying spot LNG cargoes during this year due to low JKM prices.
Asian spot LNG prices were below $10/MMBtu from the second half of January and until the second half of April.
However, front month JKM rose in May for the first time this year above $12/MMBtu and it remains to be above $12/MMBtu.
China’s LNG imports rose 12.6 percent in 2023, and the country overtook Japan as the world’s largest LNG importer.
The country received about 71.32 million tonnes in the January-December period last year.