China's February LNG Imports Up on Year

China’s LNG imports in February 2018 continued to witness strong year on year growth but were considerably lower than the previous month, data released March 23 by country’s customs department showed.

Asia biggest economy last month imported 3.99mn metric tons (mt) of LNG, up 69% year on year. However, this was much lower than 5.18mn mt imported in January. Cumulative imports in the first two months were little over 9mn mt, up 58% year on year.

Chinese imports have been rising since the start of 2017 as demand for gas surged in households and industries. In 2017 LNG imports to China were a record 38.13mn mt, up over 46% on the 2016 volume. China has edged ahead of South Korea to become the world's largest LNG import nation, after Japan.