Japanese liquefied natural gas imports plunged almost 12 percent last month as cargoes from Australia maintained momentum and those from other regions dropped with the biggest faller being US shipments.
Japanese LNG imports in February 2022 amounted to 7.10 million tonnes, or 104 cargoes, compared with 8.07MT, or 118 shipments, in February 2021 2021, according to the preliminary trade figures from Japan's Ministry of Finance.
Deliveries of LNG to Japan in January 2022 had tumbled by 15.8 percent to 6.78MT, just under 100 cargoes, compared with 8.06MT in January 2021.
The cargoes received in February cost 676.22 billion yen ($5.72Bln), which was 65.3 percent more than in February 2021 when the costs were 409.06Bln yen ($3.46Bln).
The recent changes in Japan’s LNG delivery system came after the nation formally ceded the No. 1 LNG import position in 2021 to China.
Shipments to Chinese terminals in 2021 had amounted to 78.93MT which was 18.3 percent more than in 2020.
Japan’s Finance Ministry confirmed annual cargo deliveries to Japan as 74.31MT, down 0.2 percent on 2020 and 4.62MT less that the Chinese total for 2021.
Shipments of LNG to Japan in February 2022 from Asian countries dropped by 5.9 percent year-on-year to 1.83MT.
Middle East cargo deliveries from nations like Qatar were also much lower, down 28.9 percent to 854,000 tonnes.
US cargoes drop
LNG imports from the US plunged by the largest margin of all countries of 56.6 percent year-on-year in February 2022 to 411,000 tonnes and were well down on the 651,000 tonnes delivered in January 2022.
The balance of imports in February 2022 came from Australia, African nations and the spot market and amounted to 3.35MT, which was higher than the 3.24MT received in February 2021 and the 3.12MT logged in the previous month.
The February 2022 trade data showed that Japanese imports of thermal coal fell by less than LNG shipments.
Thermal coal imports in February declined by 3.2 percent to 9.51MT as the Asian Northern Hemisphere enjoyed milder weather after coal shipments also fell just 1.3 percent in January to 10.54MT.
The almost parity levels between thermal coal imports and LNG shipments disappeared in 2021 with thermal coal deliveries jumping to 112.92MT, an increase of 7.7 percent.
Nuclear power generation in Japan is still much reduced with a handful of plants with nine reactors from a total of 16 plants with 50-plus reactors having gained the agreement to resume operations.
