China imported 5.86 million tonnes of LNG in July, down 1.66% month on month, but up 23.68% year on year, data from the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) showed.
2022-2023 China LNG Imports
Source: GACC
Reducing electricity consumption due to the typhoon in South China together with higher imported LNG prices dampened the buying interest of some terminals, which reduced LNG imports, according to OilChem.
The combined imports stood at 39.48 million t in the first seven months, rising 9.23% from a year earlier, the customs data showed.
Compared with last year, LNG imports presented an uptrend over February-July 2023, primarily supported by recovering domestic demand post the pandemic, especially in May when the volume surged 30.18% on the year in view of growing electricity consumption triggered by the drought in Southwest China's Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.
July 2023 China LNG Imports by Country of Origin
Source: GACC
Regarding the supplying countries, Australia remained the top LNG supplier to China, with a volume of around 2.21 million t in July, up 2.7% month on month and 22.21% year on year.
LNG imports from Qatar, the second-biggest supplier, reached 1.26 million t, occupying 21.55% of China's total imports. Russia, Malaysia and the US followed with the volumes of 0.58 million t, 0.53 million t and 0.35 million t, respectively.
At the same time, China imported 4.45 million t of natural gas via pipeline in July, up 0.4% on the month and 2.36% on the year, the customs data showed. The total imports in the first seven months reached 27.63 million t, rising 5.17% from a year ago.
Written by Sunny Fang, fss@oilchem.net
Edited by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com