Australia has stepped into the gap left as US LNG shipments to China dry up amid the protracted trade war,but Qatari sales have dropped(WGI Sep.12’18).Other big beneficiaries include Malaysia and Russia,according to Energy Intelligence analysis of customs data for the first nine months of 2019.China is the world’s second-largest LNG importer after Japan,and is regarded as the driver of global demand growth,while the US is the third-largest exporter after Qatar and Australia(WGI Aug.8’ 18).But the trade dispute-which saw Beij ing impose a 10% tariff on US LNG imports in September 2018,rising to 25% this June-has opened the way for other suppliers(WGI Sep.12’18).Overall Chinese imports jumped 17% year-on-year to nearly 44 million tons in the first nine months,but purchases from the US crashed to 268,000 tons from over 2 million tons,with zero imports since April(WGI May15’19).
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