China, the world’s second-largest importer of liquefied natural gas, continued to boost its LNG imports and they rose by 36.5 percent year-on-year in March.
LNG imports totaled 5.64 million tonnes last month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. Imports also increased when compared to February when China received 5.55 million tonnes of LNG.
In the January-March period, China imported 19.55 million tonnes of chilled fuel.
This marked a year-on-year rise of 28.8 percent when compared to the same period in 2020.
Furhermore, China’s pipeline gas imports also increased by 13 percent to 3.08 million tonnes.
These imports rose by 4.6 percent in the January-March period reaching 9.84 million tonnes.
China’s LNG imports hit an all-time high last year rising 11.5 percent when compared to the year before.
The world’s top energy consumer imported 67.13 million tonnes in 2020, cementing its position as the second-largest LNG importer, after Japan.
On the other side, Japan’s LNG imports dropped 1.1 percent in March to 7.12 million tonnes while they totaled about 23.2 million tonnes in the first quarter. This is some 3.65 million tonnes more than China imported during the same period.