LNG

Japanese LNG imports have rebounded by almost 10 percent even as the year-on-year cost of the shipments have soared by more than 150 percent as deliveries increased from Australia, the spot market and Russia.

Japanese liquefied natural gas imports increased for a fourth straight month while prices jumped almost 90 percent year-on-year, though imports of thermal coal surpassed LNG, surging 34.5 percent last month to meet higher power demands.

The August 2021 LNG shipments amounted to 6.29MT, or around 90 cargoes, which was 7.8 percent higher than the 5.8MT received in August 2020, according to the preliminary trade figures from Japan's Ministry of Finance.

The July deliveries had amounted to 6.18MT, up 2.5 percent from the 6.03MT received in July 2020.

Japan’s shipments in August cost 363.01 billion yen ($3.31Bln), a rise of 89.3 percent on the 191.76Bln ($1.75Bln) spent in August 2020, though for fewer cargoes.

LNG competes mainly with thermal coal for power generation in Japan and the shipments of coal increased by 34.5 percent year-on-year in August to 10.6MT.

Japan’s thermal coal imports in July 2021 were also high at 9.81MT, up 10.90 percent on the same month in 2020.

Nuclear power generation in Japan is still much reduced with only five plants with nine reactors from a total of 16 plants with 50-plus reactors having gained the agreement of local authorities to resume operations.

Just nine of these reactors are currently on line at six plants.

LNG cargo deliveries to Japan during August 2021 from nations such as Malaysia and Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Brunei rose by 18.5 percent to 1.46MT compared with August 2020.

Middle East shipments from countries like Qatar and Oman were 25.2 percent up year-on-year at 1.25MT.

However, shipments from Russia last month fell 75.7 percent to 144,000 tonnes because of maintenance work at the Sakhalin Island plant in the Russian Far East.

US cargo deliveries to Japan almost doubled year-on-year to 541,000 tonnes, though were less than the previous month's total of 611,000 tonnes.

The balance of imports in August 2021 came from Australia, African nations and the spot market.

That segment of the imports was higher than the previous month at 2.89MT versus last month’s 2.48MT and the deliveries were also above the 2.74MT received in August 2020.

Annual LNG deliveries to the Japanese import network of 37 facilities came to 74.46MT in 2020, down 3.7 percent compared with the 77.32MT received in 2019.

Imports by the world’s largest buyer of LNG have continued to drop in recent years and in 2021 the Japanese total will be overtaken by China.

Japan's 2019 import total of 77.32MT was 6.7 percent lower than the 82.85MT logged in 2018.  

Japanese liquefied natural gas imports jumped for a third month in July with higher volumes arriving from all regions apart from the Middle East at prices over 40 percent higher than a year ago, while thermal coal shipments for power use also jumped as the nation hosted the Olympic Games.

The July 2021 LNG shipments amounted to 6.18MT, or around 90 cargoes, which was 2.5 percent higher than the 6.03MT received in July 2020, according to the trade figures from Japan's Ministry of Finance.

The June deliveries had amounted to 5.70MT, up 8.5 percent from the 5.26MT received in June 2020.

Japan’s shipments in July 2021 cost 343.62 billion yen ($3.21Bln), a rise of 42 percent on the 242.14Bln ($2.20Bln) spent in July 2020 for slightly fewer cargoes.

LNG competes mainly with thermal coal for power generation in Japan.

Japan’s thermal coal imports in July 2021 came to 9.81MT, which was 10.90 higher than the level of shipments a year ago and on June’s imports of 7.49MT of thermal coal.

Nuclear power generation in Japan is still much reduced with only five plants with nine reactors from a total of 16 plants with 50-plus reactors having gained the agreement of local authorities to resume operations.

Just nine of these reactors are currently on line at six plants.

LNG cargo deliveries to Japan during July 2021 from nations such as Malaysia and Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Brunei rose by 24.6 percent to 1.44MT compared with July 2020.

Middle East shipments from countries like Qatar and Oman dropped 8.8 percent year-on-year to 886,000 tonnes.

Shipments from Russia last month almost doubled to 761,000 tonnes. US cargo deliveries to Japan also jumped year-on-year but at a more modest 31 percent to 611,000 tonnes.

The balance of imports in July 2021 came from Australia, African nations and the spot market.

That segment of the imports was higher than the previous month at 2.48MT compared with 2.25MT in June 2021.

Annual shipments of LNG to the Japanese import network of 37 facilities came to 74.46MT in 2020, down 3.7 percent compared with the 77.32MT received in 2019.

Imports by the world’s largest buyer of LNG have continued to drop in recent years. The 2019 total of 77.32MT was 6.7 percent lower than the 82.85MT logged in 2018. 

Japan’s liquefied natural gas imports jumped for a second month and also rose for the first half of the year with higher volumes from the US and Russia, though shipments to Japanese terminals were well down on those to China.

Japanese liquefied natural gas imports declined last month at the expense of thermal coal imports even as LNG cost the nation 20 percent less than a year ago and US shipments to Japan overtook those from Russia for the first time.