China, the world’s largest energy consumer, is continuing to post higher monthly LNG imports and reported a 16.3 percent year-on-year increase in August. LNG imports totaled 5.96 million tonnes last month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
In the January-August period, the country imported 42.17 million tonnes of chilled fuel, a year-on-year rise of 10 percent. On the other side, China’s pipeline gas imports also increased by 8 percent to 3.40 million tonnes. But they are still down year-on-year in the nine-month period to 22.90 million tonnes.
China is currently the world’s second-largest importer of LNG behind Japan but this could change this year. Japan’s LNG imports stood at 48.40 million tonnes in the January-August period, up by 6.23 million tonnes compared to China.