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The country’s LNG imports decreased to 5.87 million tonnes last month compared to 6.02 million tonnes in February 2024.
LNG imports also dropped compared to 6.64 million tonnes of LNG in January, which was up by 8.7 percent year-on-year.
On the other hand, Japan’s coal imports for power generation increased in February compared to the same month last year.
The data shows that coal imports were up by 13.1 percent to 8.83 million tonnes, and Japan paid about $1.27 billion for these imports, a drop of 3 percent compared to last year.
LNG import bill down
The February LNG import bill, which was about $3.7 billion, dropped by 7.3 percent compared to the same month last year.
JOGMEC said in a report last week that the contract-based price and the arrival-based price for February spot LNG cargoes were not disclosed.
The organization only publishes spot LNG prices in cases where there are two or more companies that imported spot LNG.
Also, the confirmed figures for January 2025 were not changed from the preliminary figures, with the contract-based price at $13.8/MMBtu, and the arrival-based price at $14.2/MBtu, according to JOGMEC.
LNG inventories
METI previously announced that Japan’s LNG inventories for power generation stood at 2.42 million tonnes as of February 2, up from 2.15 million tonnes the previous week.
According to METI, inventories stood at 2.15 million tonnes on February 9, 2.01 million tonnes on February 16, 1.93 million tonnes on February 23, 1.98 million tonnes on March 2, 1.78 million tonnes on March 9, and 1.56 million tonnes on March 16.
Deliveries to Japan
As per LNG shipments going to Japan in February, deliveries from Asia decreased by 4.2 percent year-on-year to 1.59 million tonnes, the ministry’s data shows.
Middle East LNG shipments decreased by 29.5 percent to 503,000 tonnes in February.
Moreover, shipments from Russia rose by 3.8 percent to 585,000 tonnes, while US deliveries decreased by 32.1 percent to 327,000 tonnes in February.
China and Japan
Japan, the world’s second-largest LNG importer, took 65.89 million tonnes of LNG last year, down 0.4 percent year-on-year, while China remained the top LNG importer and its imports increased by 7.7 percent to 76.65 million tonnes last year.
However, Japan imported more LNG than China in the first two months of this year.
During January-February, China imported 10.60 million tonnes, a decrease of 19.1 percent compared to the same period last year.
Japan’s LNG terminals took about 12.51 million tonnes during January-February, up by about 1.91 million tonnes compared to China.