Japanese liquefied natural gas imports increased again in May even at higher prices while thermal coal deliveries dropped and nuclear plant re-starts plans continued to advance.
Japan’s network of 37 terminals handled 4.87 million tonnes of LNG, or around 72 cargoes, in May 2024. This was an increase of 5.6 percent on the 4.62MT, or 68 shipments, received in May 2023, according to preliminary Finance Ministry data.
Deliveries of LNG cargoes had soared by 16.7 percent in April 2024 to 5.28MT from 4.53MT in April 2023.
Japan still faces tough competition from China for LNG volumes and the Chinese May deliveries were higher at 6.57MT, an increase of 2.5 percent from the 6.41MT received in May 2023.
LNG costs jump
The cost to Japan of the May cargoes was 449.16Bln ($2.84Bln), an increase of 9.1 percent from the 411.76 billion yen ($2.61Bln) paid in May last year.
Thermal coal imports, a competitor to LNG for electricity generation, amounted to 6.09MT, down by 1.5 percent and with costs at 145.76Bln yen ($923 million), which was 28.8 percent lower than last year.
The data from the Finance Ministry showed that deliveries of LNG from Asian nations like Malaysia and Indonesia amounted in May to 1.50MT, an increase of up 27.4 percent from the same month last year.
Deliveries from countries in the Middle East like Qatar came to 464,000 tonnes in May, a two-fold increase on the imports in May 2023.
US deliveries to Japan in May jumped by 171 percent from May 2023 to 494,000 tonnes, while deliveries from Russia plunged by over 40 percent to 363,000 tonnes.
The balance of the shipments in May came mainly from Australia and the spot market and amounted to 2.05MT, higher than the 1.88MT delivered by this supply segment in May 2023.
Japan’s LNG deliveries for the full fiscal year to the end of March 2024 had amounted to 63.88MT, which was 8 percent lower than the previous fiscal year.
More nuclear
Japan is additionally continuing with its nuclear plant re-start programme and this could lessen the need for LNG imports in the medium term.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings recently announced it was preparing to recommence operations in October 2024 at unit 7 of the Kashiwazaki Kariwa facility in Niigata Prefecture.
