Japan posts LNG imports drop in October

Imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) into Japan dropped during the month of October.

Provisional data released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance shows that Japan imported a total of 5.94 million tons of LNG in October 2020.

This is a 5.6 per cent slip compared to the volumes imported during the corresponding month in 2019.

Compared to the previous month, LNG imports dropped by 8.6 per cent. To remind, Japan imported a total of 6.5 million tons of LNG in September 2020.

The value of October LNG imports reached $1.82 billion 42.7 per cent down when comparing it to the corresponding month in 2020.

Deliveries from Asian sources such as Malaysia and Indonesia slipped 19.3 per cent, reaching 1.1 million tons. At the same time, imports of LNG from the Middle Eastern sources increased by 12.2 per cent to 1.2 million tons.

Data shows that Japan’s imports of Russian LNG edged down 0.5 per cent to 529,000 tons while imports of U.S. LNG plummeted 66.4 per cent to 199,000 tons.

Imports of coal for power generation edged 1.2 per cent up to 9.2 million tons in October 2020.