Japan’s monthly LNG imports continue to fall

Japan’s monthly liquefied natural gas imports continued to decline in May due to the effects of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Japan, the world’s largest importer of LNG, received 4.51 million tonnes of the fuel last month, down 18.9 per cent from a year earlier and representing the fifth monthly drop in volumes this year.

The country imported 5.13 million tonnes of LNG in April, the lowest monthly volume since May 2010.

May LNG imports cost Japan about $2.2 billion, a decline of 22.2 per cent year-on-year, according to the provisional data released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance. Prices of spot LNG volumes also hit new lows in May.

May LNG deliveries from Asia from countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia dropped by almost 30 per cent to 965.000 tonnes, the data shows.

Middle East LNG shipments from sources like Qatar declined by 16.8 per cent to 660,000 tonnes.

Shipments from Russia dropped almost 40 percent to 324,000 tonnes while US deliveries tripled to 409,000 tonnes.

On the other side, Japan’s coal imports for power generation also declined.

Japan imported 7.19 million tonnes of coal in May, down 9.2 per cent year-on-year, the ministry’s data shows.