The sales of heavy-duty LNG trucks in China maintained a high growth of 135% in the first quarter of 2024 due to attractive LNG prices. This is expected to drive up China's LNG consumption by more than 6 million tonnes in 2024, and the growth rate may return back to 20% again, compared with an average compound annual growth rate of just 3.16% in the past five years, learned from OilChem.
Source: OilChem
The sales in provinces such as Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and Henan took up 20.40%, 17.40%, 8.90% and 8.80% of the total respectively in the first quarter thanks to busy logistics services in the region, outpacing that in the traditional stars Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, according to OilChem.
This is mainly driven by the economic efficiency and infrastructure construction.
Source: OilChem
LNG heavy-duty trucks are particularly popular when the prices of natural gas are attractive than gasoil. Seen above, the natural gas to gasoil price ratio has even been below 0.6 since May last year, which means LNG vehicles have an advantage, thus propelling the demand for LNG heavy-duty trucks.
In addition, with the recovery of demand for LNG heavy-duty trucks in recent years, the traditional gas station operators represented by Sinopec have begun to shift towards LNG sales, expanding retail revenues by constructing LNG refueling stations and adding refueling facilities on the basis of existing gas stations, while also increasing the density of LNG refueling station distribution.
It is worth noting that the regions such as Jiangsu and Guangdong achieved a huge increase of 4,430% and 2,124% in the number of LNG heavy-duty trucks ownership in March this year, showing that the LNG heavy-duty truck sales are extending from the traditional northern China to the southern China, which will further lift the LNG consumption this year.
Written by Sunny Fang, fss@oilchem.net
Edited by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com