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The country’s LNG imports decreased to 5.05 million tonnes last month.
LNG imports also dropped compared to 5.29 million tonnes in October and 5.43 million tonnes in September.
Japan imported 5.72 million tonnes in August, which marked a year-on-year increase for the fifth month in a row.
The country’s LNG terminals took 5.62 million tonnes in July, 4.57 million tonnes in June, 4.87 million tonnes in May, 5.28 million tonnes in April, 5.55 million tonnes in March, 6.02 million tonnes in February, and 6.1 million tonnes in January.
Japan’s coal imports for power generation increased in November compared to the last year.
The data shows that coal imports were up by 2.2 percent to 8.48 million tonnes, and Japan paid about $1.3 billion for these imports, a drop of 10.2 percent compared to last year.
LNG import bill down
The November LNG import bill, which was about $3.15 billion, decreased by 2.5 percent compared to the same month last year.
JOGMEC said in a report last week that the average price of spot LNG cargoes for delivery to Japan contracted in November and scheduled to be delivered from the month onward (contract-based price) was $13.9/MMBtu.
Also, the average price of spot LNG cargoes that were delivered in Japan within the month of October regardless of the month when the contracts were made (arrival-based price) was not disclosed as there were less than two companies that imported spot LNG.
JOGMEC previously said that the arrival-based and contract-based prices were at $13.6/MMBtu and $13.7/MMBtu in October.
LNG inventories
METI previously announced that Japan’s LNG inventories for power generation stood at 2.05 million tonnes as of November 3, up from 2 million tonnes the previous week.
According to METI, inventories stood at 2.14 million tonnes on November 10, 2.20 million tonnes on November 17, 2.06 million tonnes on November 24, 1.89 million tonnes on December 1, 2.12 million tonnes on December 8, and 2.24 million tonnes on December 15.
Deliveries to Japan
As per LNG shipments going to Japan in November, deliveries from Asia increased by 8.3 percent to 1.25 million tonnes, the ministry’s data shows.
Middle East LNG shipments decreased by 38.1 percent to 475,000 tonnes in November.
Moreover, shipments from Russia decreased by 26.9 percent to 479,000 tonnes, while US deliveries increased by 17.8 percent to 524,000 tonnes in November.
Second largest LNG importer
China has overtaken Japan to become the world’s top importer of LNG last year and will remain the top importer this year.
China’s LNG imports rose 12.6 percent to about 71.32 million tonnes in the January-December period, and the country imported 5.17 million tonnes more LNG than Japan in 2023.
During January-November this year, China imported 69.61 million tonnes of LNG, a rise of 10.7 percent year over year.
Japan imported some 10 million tonnes of LNG less than China during the same period.