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 having gained the agreement of local authorities to resume operations.
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.
