China's March LNG Imports Up on Year

China’s LNG imports in March continued to grow strongly year on year, but were below February 2018 levels, data released April 23 by the country’s customs department showed.

The world’s second biggest LNG importer imported 3.25mn metric tons of LNG last month, up 64% year on year, but less than the 3.99mn mt imported by China in February 2018 (itself up 69% year on year).

Cumulative imports in 1Q2018 were a little over 12.4mn mt, up 60% 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, according to the Chinese customs department, which meant that China edged ahead of South Korea to become the world's second largest LNG import nation after Japan. 

A trade body this month put Chinese 2017 imports 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.