China ups gas imports in August

Natural gas imports during the last month reached about 11.76 million tonnes, rising 8.3 percent compared to 10.85 million tonnes in August 2023, the data from the General Administration of Customs shows.

China paid about $5.81 billion for gas imports last month.

During January-August, China’s gas imports reached 87.12 million tonnes, a rise of 12.3 percent year-on-year.

The world’s largest LNG importer paid about $42.7 billion for gas imports in January-August, up 1.4 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

There is currently no official data for LNG imports in August.

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, in April LNG imports increased 31.5 percent to 6.22 million tonnes of LNG, in May LNG imports increased by 3.4 percent to 6.57 million tonnes, while June imports were down 4.6 percent year-on-year to 5.62 million tonnes, customs data previously showed.

China’s LNG imports increased by 11.9 percent to 43.83 million tonnes in January-July, while July LNG imports rose 1.1 percent to 5.90 million tonnes.

The slowdown in May and July LNG imports and the decrease in June LNG imports could be attributed to the rise in prices.

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 and it currently trades between 13-14/MMBtu.

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 last year.