The country’s LNG imports decreased 2.2 percent year-on-year to 5.29 million tonnes last month.
LNG imports also dropped compared to 5.43 million tonnes in September, which marked a 1.7 percent decreased year-on-year.
GECF said in its October report that the drop in Japan’s LNG imports can be attributed to high storage levels.
Japan imported 5.72 million tonnes in August, which marked a year-on-year increase for the fifth month in a row.
The country’s LNG terminals took 5.62 million tonnes in July, 4.57 million tonnes in June, 4.87 million tonnes in May, 5.28 million tonnes in April, 5.55 million tonnes in March, 6.02 million tonnes in February, and 6.1 million tonnes in January.
Japan’s coal imports for power generation dropped slightly in October compared to the last year.
The data shows that coal imports were down by 0.9 percent to 8.5 million tonnes, and Japan paid about $1.25 billion for these imports, a drop of 21 percent compared to last year.
LNG import bill down
The October LNG import bill, which was about $3.11 billion, decreased by 2.9 percent compared to the same month last year.
JOGMEC said in a report last week that the average price of spot LNG cargoes for delivery to Japan contracted in October and scheduled to be delivered from the month onward (contract-based price) was $13.7/MMBtu.
Also, the average price of spot LNG cargoes that were delivered in Japan within the month of September regardless of the month when the contracts were made (arrival-based price) was 13.6/MMBtu.
JOGMEC previously said that the arrival-based and contract-based prices were at $13.7/MMBtu and $13/MMBtu in September.
LNG inventories
METI previously announced that Japan’s LNG inventories for power generation stood at 2.02 million tonnes as of October 6, up from 1.99 million tonnes the previous week.
According to METI, inventories stood at 2.09 million tonnes on October 13, 2.17 million tonnes on October 20, 2.07 million tonnes on October 27, 2.12 million tonnes on November 3, 2.21 million tonnes on November 10, and 2.28 million tonnes on November 17.
Deliveries to Japan
As per LNG shipments going to Japan in October, deliveries from Asia decreased by 6.9 percent to 1.11 million tonnes, the ministry’s data shows.
Middle East LNG shipments rose by 12.5 percent to 474,000 tonnes in October.
Moreover, shipments from Russia rose by 8.9 percent to 551,000 tonnes, while US deliveries decreased by 10.1 percent to 511,000 tonnes in October.
Second largest LNG importer
China has overtaken Japan to become the world’s top importer of LNG last year.
China’s LNG imports rose 12.6 percent to about 71.32 million tonnes in the January-December period, and the country imported 5.17 million tonnes more LNG than Japan in 2023.
During January-October this year, China imported 63.55 million tonnes of LNG, a rise of 13.2 percent year over year.
Japan imported some 9 million tonnes of LNG less than China during the same period.
