中文
Spot prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Asia surged more than 20 per cent in a week as demand picked up in China and South Korea, the main importers, and buyers cancelled US LNG shipments.
Several traders told Reuters that spot prices for several batches of LNG fluctuated between $2.40 and $2.65 per million BTU this week, compared with just $2 per million BTU last week.
With the blockade relaxed and business activity resumed, demand in Asia began to pick up. Meanwhile, buyers in Asia and Europe are said to have cancelled about 20 shipments of us LNG projects in April.
This week, rising demand and reduced supply pushed up LNG prices.
As Asian countries relaxed the blockade, Asian LNG spot prices began to rise slowly last week, which created some demand. Before that, novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic has led to a low demand for LNG spot prices in Asia, and spot supply is oversupplied in the past three weeks.
Even before the outbreak of the virus, natural gas prices – from Asian spot LNG prices to northwest European hubs and US benchmark port Henry – had fallen as global gas and LNG supplies outpaced demand growth. Spot LNG prices have fallen to a 10-year low due to winter warming in many parts of Asia, surging supply of new LNG, especially from the US and Australia, and slowing import growth in China.
Subsequently, North Asia ushered in a relatively mild winter, and the LNG inventory of the whole Asia was very high in winter. All of these factors have led to LNG prices falling to multi-year lows. Then, as commercial activity stalled during the blockade, the outbreak further hit the LNG market.