China LNG Import Recovers from Oct Low but Fails to Record New High in Nov
According to the latest data from China General Administration of Customs (CGAC), China’s natural gas import in November 2020 jumped to 9.17 million tons, up 21.9% from October’s traditional pre-winter low but still down 2.5% from 2019’s record. The accumulative annual import volume of natural gas has reached 90.44 million tons, up 3.9% Y-O-Y.
CGAC’s LNG import data shows the November LNG receiving volume was 6.61 million tons, up 31.64% M-O-M and 2.32% Y-O-Y, and the November piped gas import volume was 2.56 million tons, up 2.26% M-O-M but down 13.02% Y-O-Y. The monthly average import costs of LNG and PNG were $324.48/mt and $259.24/mt respectively.
As for LNG import, the offline of PipeChina Beihai terminal, which is one of the most active LNG receiving terminals in 2021, happened at the beginning of November and lasted in the rest days of the month, reducing the momentum of November LNG import to a certain extent. Although other terminals maintained high imports at the beginning of the winter season and CNOOC tried the best to reroute cargoes for the Beihai terminal, major impacts still affected the monthly import. Thus, China’s November LNG import jumped from October, only because October’s import was unusually low, and the year-on-year growth failed to meet the previously estimated goal at 7 million tons for November 2020.
