China's June LNG Imports Up 31% on Year

China’s LNG imports in June continued to grow strongly year on year, data released July 23 by the country’s customs department showed.

The world’s second biggest LNG importer imported 3.97mn metric tons of LNG in June, up 31% year on year. However, month on month, imports were a tad lower. China imported 4.15mn mt of LNG in May.

Cumulative imports in January-June were 23.8mn mt, an increase of 50% from the same period a year ago.

Demand for natural gas has been rising since the start of 2017 which has resulted in sharp growth in imports of LNG. Last year, LNG imports to China were a record 38.13mn mt, up over 46% on year, according to the Chinese customs department, which meant that China edged ahead of South Korea to become the world's second largest LNG importing nation after Japan. 

According to a trade body Chinese 2017 imports were even higher at 39.01mn mt, up 42.3% year on year, and said that 10.2mn mt – or 26% of those imports – were loaded on to trucks at receiving terminals.