China's LNG Imports on Track to Fall 18% in August as Prices Surge
Key Takeaways
- •China's LNG imports are set to decline by 18% year-over-year to about 5.2 million tons in August, ending three months of consecutive growth.
- •Asian spot LNG averaged $21 per MMBtu in August, nearly double the $12 per MMBtu recorded a year earlier, and hit a five-month high of $23.388 per MMBtu last week.
- •QatarEnergy has extended its force majeure on LNG deliveries through October and early November, tightening global supply ahead of the northern hemisphere winter.
- •Chinese buyers, among Asia's most price-sensitive, can shift to domestic production and pipeline gas from Russia and Central Asia when spot LNG becomes expensive.
- •Asia-Europe competition for non-Hormuz-trapped supply has kept prices at four-year highs as other producers could not fully offset the shortfall in Middle East cargoes.
China's liquefied natural gas imports are on track to slump by 18% in August from a year earlier, ending a three-month-long run of growing purchases this summer, as high LNG prices deter price-sensitive industrial consumers, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg and reported on Monday.
The average price of spot LNG for delivery into Asia nearly doubled this month compared with the same month last year, as global gas markets continue to tighten amid intense Asia-Europe competition for supply that is not trapped behind the Strait of Hormuz. Asian LNG prices averaged $21 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in August 2026, up from just $12 per MMBtu a year earlier.
Spot LNG prices in Asia hit a five-month high of $23.388 per MMBtu last week. Prices have been hovering at four-year high levels as supply tightened with the absence of Qatari term deliveries since the Iran war began. Qatar is one of the world's largest LNG exporters, and its term cargoes are a cornerstone of supply for both Asian and European buyers, which is why the disruption has rippled across the global market. In addition, Asian utilities have been outbidding Europe for LNG supply this summer amid a shrinking pool of Middle East cargoes — a shortfall that other producers have not been able to fully offset with increased deliveries.
Reports on Friday that Qatar's state-owned QatarEnergy has extended its force majeure on LNG deliveries to customers through October and early November further heightened concerns about global LNG supply just ahead of winter, when heating demand typically peaks in the northern hemisphere and buyers race to fill storage. The timing of the extended outage leaves importers with a narrower window to rebuild inventories before cold-weather demand arrives.
China had increased its LNG imports for a second consecutive month in June. Chinese imports began recovering in May, rebounding from an eight-year low, as buyers started purchasing more cargoes in mid-April and have maintained a high rate of imports since then.
High prices are now driving some demand destruction, however. After three months of year-over-year increases in LNG imports, China's imports of the fuel are set to fall by 18% to about 5.2 million tons in August, according to Kpler estimates cited by Bloomberg. China's buyers are known to be among the most price-sensitive in the Asian market, and the country also has the option of leaning more heavily on domestic production and pipeline gas from suppliers such as Russia and Central Asian states when spot LNG becomes costly — flexibility that has previously led Chinese importers to step back from the spot market during price spikes. The August pullback suggests that dynamic is again in play, though the article's data covers spot-driven import volumes rather than total gas consumption.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com.
