Asian demand

摘要

Asia continues to be the dominant LNG importing region accounting for 77% of the global total in the fourth quarter and 74.4% in 2013 as a whole (table 2)2. Japan's imports in the first three quarters of the year were marginally below the level in the same period of 2012 but an increase of 8.6% in the fourth quarter, during which all of the country's nuclear reactors were off-line, took the total imports for the year to 87.56 mt, a new annual record, 0.38 mt (0.4%) above the previous record in 2012. Economic growth and its own nuclear shut-downs were the main reasons for an increase in Korea's imports for the year by 3.76 mt (10.3%). Taiwan's imports were marginally higher than a year earlier in both the fourth quarter and in 2013 as a whole.