Japan's 2018 LNG Imports Down a Tad

Japan’s LNG imports in 2018 dropped 0.9% year-on-year to 82.8 million metric tons, according to provisional data published by the country’s finance ministry January 23.

Japan is world's largest LNG importer and in 2017 it bought 83.63mn mt of the commodity, up 0.4% from the year before, ahead of China which last year overtook South Korea to become the second biggest importer.

In December, Japan imported 7.25mn mt of LNG, down almost 9% year-on-year.