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“Spark30S (Atlantic) freight rates continue to rise for a second consecutive week, increasing by $5,000 to $40,750 per day and the first time Atlantic freight rates have risen above $40,000 since October 2024, Spark’s data lead analyst Qasim Afghan told LNG Prime on Friday.
Meanwhile, Spark25S (Pacific) rates stayed relatively flat at $22,000 per day, he said.
European LNG demand
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG dropped compared to last week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front month price for June is assessed at $9.969/MMBtu, the lowest front month DES LNG price for NW-Europe since July 2024,” Afghan said.
He said the discount to the TTF is assessed at $0.66/MMBtu, continuing to indicate “strong” demand for LNG delivery slots in NW-Europe.
“The US front-month arb to NE-Asia (via the Cape of Good Hope) remains closed out, pricing in at -$0.122/MMBtu and marginally pointing to Europe. The US front-month arb to NE-Asia via Panama continues to marginally point to Asia, assessed at $0.005/MMBtu,” Afghan said.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU continued to rise and were 39.52 percent full on April 30.
Gas storages were 37.73 percent full on April 23., and 62.44 percent full on April 30, 2024.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in June 2025 settled at $11.260/MMBtu on Thursday.
Last week, JKM for June settled at 11.270/MMBtu on Friday, April 25.
Front-month JKM rose slightly to $11.280/MMBtu on Monday. It dropped to 11.215/MMBtu on Tuesday and remained the same on Wednesday.
State-run Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (Jogmec) said in a report earlier this week that JKM for last week fell to “low-$11s/MMBtu on April 25 (June delivery) from low-$12s/MMBtu the previous weekend.”
“JKM fell due to the price differential in LNG price between Asia and Europe and increased supply of US spot LNG to Asia through arbitrage amid lackluster demand growth in Asia,” Jogmec said.