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Data from the General Administration of Customs shows that the country received 6.54 million tonnes during the last month, up 5.1 percent year-on-year.
The data shows that during January-August, China imported 50.29 million tonnes of LNG, a rise of 10.7 percent year over year.
This also compares to 51.81 million tonnes China imported during January-August in 2021, which was a record year for China’s LNG imports with 78.93 million tonnes.
China’s growth in LNG imports slowed down in May, and the country received 6.57 million tonnes, up by 3.4 percent compared to the previous year.
June imports were down 4.6 percent year-on-year to 5.62 million tonnes, and July imports were up 1.1 percent year-on-year to 5.90 million tonnes.
Customs data previously showed that in January this year, China’s LNG import terminals took 7.25 million tonnes of LNG, up by 22.9 percent year-on-year. In February, LNG imports rose by 15.2 percent to 5.95 million tonnes, in March, LNG imports increased by 25.1 percent to 6.65 million tonnes, and in April, LNG imports increased by 31.5 percent to 6.22 million tonnes.
Natural gas imports, including pipeline gas, during the last month reached about 11.76 million tonnes, rising 8.3 percent compared to 10.85 million tonnes in August 2023,
China’s pipeline imports rose 14.6 percent year-on-year in August to 5.22 million tonnes.
Chinese buyers were buying spot LNG cargoes during this year due to low JKM prices.
Asian spot LNG prices were below $10/MMBtu from the second half of January and until the second half of April.
However, front month JKM rose in May for the first time this year above $12/MMBtu. The JKM for November settled at 13.300/MMBtu on Tuesday.
China’s LNG imports rose 12.6 percent in 2023, and the country overtook Japan as the world’s largest LNG importer.
The country received about 71.32 million tonnes in the January-December period.
This is a rise compared to about 63.44 million tonnes of LNG in 2022 when imports dropped due to very high spot LNG prices and Covid lockdowns.
China’s 2023 LNG imports dropped compared to the record in 2021.