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According to provisional data released by the country’s Ministry of Finance, the country’s LNG imports rose 1 percent year-on-year to 5.72 million tonnes last month.
LNG imports rose compared to 5.62 million tonnes in July, which marked a 10.4 percent rise year-on-year.
Also, Japan imported 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 rose in August compared to the last year.
The data shows that coal imports were up by 10.3 percent to 9.25 million tonnes, and Japan paid about $1.52 billion for these imports, a drop of 7.2 percent compared to last year.
LNG import bill climbs
The August LNG import bill of about $3.83 billion increased by 8.3 percent compared to the same month last year.
JOGMEC said in a report earlier this month that the arrival-based and contract-based prices were not disclosed as less than two companies imported spot LNG.
Also, the confirmed figures for July 2024 were not changed from the preliminary figures, with the contract-based price at $12.1/MMBtu and the arrival-based not disclosed, JOGMEC said.
LNG inventories
METI previously announced that Japan’s LNG inventories for power generation stood at 1.91 million tonnes as of August 4, down from 2.14 million tonnes the previous week.
According to METI, inventories stood at 1.99 million tonnes on August 11, 1.93 million tonnes on August 18, 2.06 million tonnes on August 25, 1.83 million tonnes on September 1, 2.09 million tonnes on September 8, and 1.88 million tonnes on September 15.
Deliveries to Japan
As per LNG shipments going to Japan in August, deliveries from Asia increased by 1.1 percent to 1.26 million tonnes, the ministry’s data shows.
Middle East LNG shipments rose by 11.4 percent to 780,000 tonnes in August.
Moreover, shipments from Russia rose by 49 percent to 585,000 tonnes, while US deliveries decreased by 40.8 percent to 383,000 tonnes in August.
Second largest LNG importer
China has overtaken Japan to become the world’s top importer of LNG last year.
China’s LNG imports rose 12.6 percent to about 71.32 million tonnes in the January-December period, and the country imported some 5.17 million tonnes of LNG more than Japan in 2023.
During January-August this year, China imported 50.29 million tonnes of LNG, a rise of 10.7 percent year-on-year.
Japan imported some 6.5 million tonnes of LNG less than China during the January-August period.