China's September LNG Imports Spike

China’s LNG imports in September saw strong year-on-year growth as demand remained firm ahead of the winter season that starts in November.

Asia’s largest economy imported 4.37mn mt of LNG last month, up 27% year-on-year, according to data published by country’s customs department October 23. Imports were, however, down month-on-month; in August, China imported 4.71mn mt of LNG.

For the first nine months of 2018, imports totalled 36.98mn mt, up 44.9% year-on-year and are, for the full year, likely to break last year’s record when China imported 38.13mn mt of LNG.

Last year, China edged ahead of South Korea to become the world's second-largest LNG importing nation, after Japan.