Asian main buyers (except Taiwan) reduced their LNG imports in the first nine months of this year as high gas prices, shrunk economic activities, recession fears and regional lockdowns in China reduced gas demand in the region.
Asian main buyers (except Taiwan) reduced their LNG imports in the first nine months of this year as high gas prices, shrunk economic activities, recession fears and regional lockdowns in China reduced gas demand in the region.
Asian LNG buyers’ spot LNG imports during this period has been significantly diminished because of high spot prices that touched the highest level.
During the first nine months of 2022, LNG imports by China and India crushed by 21.09% YoY and 13.39% YoY, respectively. Japan’s LNG imports down 2.62% YoY and S. Korea’s LNG imports reduced by 0.83% YoY.
China in particular has boosted domestic coal output and consumption in order to trim reliance on natural gas while Russian gas was competing with imported LNG in this market.
Countries like Japan and South Korea are trying to boost the use of alternatives in power generation, such as nuclear and coal.
However, Taiwan increased its LNG imports by 4.55% YoY as it “has been taking monthly inventories of critical supplies like food and energy in case of a conflict with China” and increasing LNG storage capacity.
* While Asia's LNG imports reduced, Europe's has continued to surge as buyers seek LNG as an alternative to the uncertain Russian pipeline supplies.
* Japan regains its position as the world’s largest LNG buyers in the first nine months of 2022.
* S. Korea and Japan have imported their most ever expensive LNG in September from Papua New Guinea at US$ 67.58/MMBTU and Qatar at US$ 45.28/MMBTU, respectively.
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