China World’s 2nd Largest LNG Importer

China has this year become the world’s second-largest LNG importer after Japan, analysis of shipping data from Reuters Eikon revealed. Asia’s number-one economy imported around 38 million tons of liquefied natural gas this year, an over 50% annual increase, Oil Price reported. To compare, Japan’s LNG imports this year stood at 83.5 million tons, while South Korea’s were about 37 million tons. According to Reuters, this development will give a major spur to Asia’s spot market because Chinese LNG buyers are much more in favor of short-term contracts than long-term deals, unlike buyers in Japan and South Korea. In fact, China’s emergence as a large LNG buyer is changing the market in more than one way. The emergence of a spot market is one of these ways, which undermines the established tradition of long-term contracts for LNG supplies with prices linked to oil benchmarks.