China's imports of piped natural gas (PNG) stood at 8.90 million tonnes in the first two months of 2024, up 6.00% from that over November-December, and rising 30.73% from a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) showed.
The rise was attributed to the robust city gas and electricity consumption over January-February when the market was still in peak winter demand. And the industrial consumption was resilient until the Spring Festival holiday in February.
2023-2024 China PNG Imports
Source: GACC, OilChem
On the other hand, the exports during January and February amounted to 507,200 tonnes, down 12.00% from that over November-December while rising 17.08% from a year ago, the customs data showed.
Falling downstream consumption during the Spring Festival in Hong Kong and Macao, China's main natural gas buyers, contributed to the decline, coupled with the commissioning of the Hong Kong Offshore LNG Terminal, which resulted in a decrease in Hong Kong's dependence on inland natural gas.
2023-2024 China PNG Exports
Source: GACC, OilChem
Looking ahead, China's PNG imports are expected to drop 14.08% month-on-month to 4.21 million tonnes in March, as downstream city gas enterprises, power plants and large industrial users will mostly use LNG to fill in the supply shortage, and the exports are set to increase 3.34% to 260,000 tonnes.
Written by Sunny Fang, fss@oilchem.net
Edited by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com