LNG

Japan’s liquefied natural gas imports rebounded last month with steady volumes from the Middle East and Australia and higher cargo numbers from Russia and the US, though LNG deliveries were outpaced by thermal coal shipments.

Japan’s liquefied natural gas imports declined last month after near record shipments in the previous month and with a fall in spot and Asian cargo numbers being offset by rises in Middle East, US and Russian shipments.

Japanese contracted spot LNG cargo prices for June rose to $3.80 per million British thermal units after falling to a record low of $2.20 per MMBtu in the previous month of May, though are still well down on June 2019 when they were valued at $5.50 per MMBtu.

Japanese spot LNG prices for delivered cargoes in April 2020 averaged $3.00 per million British thermal units compared with $5.90 per MMBtu in the same month of 2019 amid the current over-supply and the commercial effects of Covid-19.

The prices are issued by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and no spot delivered prices had been given for March 2020 because the minimum number of cargoes were not received for an assessment to be made.

Spot cargoes contrcated in April but not yet delievered were priced for Japan at $2.40 per MMBtu, down from $3.40 per MMBtu in March 2020 and from $5.20 per MMBtu in April 2019, according to the Ministry.

The monthly spot cargo numbers come from the Ministry’s commerce division and are only issued if a minimum number of two trades are recorded.

Overall Japanese LNG imports, declined in March while prices were 13.5 percent lower than a year ago as Australian cargoes increased and Middle East shipments fell.

Japan imported 7.20 million tonnes in March, down 1.2 percent from the 7.29MT received in March 2019.

The volumes amounted to around 100 cargoes. The nation had imported 6.60MT of LNG in February 2020, down 9.6 percent.

The March shipments cost the nation 384.64 billion yen ($3.56 Bln), down from the March 2019 import bill of $444.66Bln yen ($4.12Bln), according to the monthly figures from the Japanese Finance Ministry.

One of the main competitor fuels for power generation, thermal coal, posted a 3.4 percent increase in shipments in March amid the LNG decline.

For the fiscal year, April 2019 to March 2020, the Ministry said LNG imports for the 12 months came to 76.50MT, down 5 percent.

The country’s imports of LNG fell for the whole of last year were 77.32MT, which was 6.7 percent lower than the 82.85MT of shipments that arrived in 2018.

Japan has only two weeks of LNG reserves in storage as the nation entered a state of emergency a week ago because of the coronavirus and this has coincided with cutbacks in its current limited nuclear power generation capacity.

Japanese spot LNG contract-based prices for March 2020 averaged $3.40 per million British thermal units, unchanged from the previous month, though $3.00 per MMBtu lower than in March 2019 amid an over-supplied market and the commercial effects of the coronavirus.

Japanese spot liquefied natural gas cargoes contracted in February reflected the combination of an over-supplied market and the first commercial effects of the coronavirus as contracted spot LNG prices dropped by $2.50 per million British thermal units in a week or two from an already low base.

Japanese spot liquefied natural gas cargoes delivered in December cost almost $4 per million British thermal units less than the price in the same month of the previous year as Northern Hemisphere winter season supplies remained abundant.

Japanese spot liquefied natural gas cargoes delivered in October cost almost half the price of a year ago but cost 0.50 per million British thermal units more than in the previous month even amid an excess of supplies weighing down the market.

The prices of spot LNG cargoes declined by around 11 percent during the past week with December 2019 and January 2020 deliveries being quoted at $6.30 per million British thermal units for China and South Korea.