Northeast Asia LNG imports grew in the first six months of this year, despite more conservative procurement patterns, increased supplies of piped natural gas and the return from maintenance of coal-fired power plants. Total LNG imports for Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan reached 79.5mn t during the six months, based on official customs data. This was up by 5.4pc from January-June 2012, when year-on-year growth was 12.5pc. Japan’s imports were relatively restrained, with the country taking 43.4mn t of LNG during the first half, down by 1.4pc on the year, as coal-fired and nuclear power supply increased. This allowed utilities to reduce their consumption of more costly LNG, crude and fuel oil for power generation.
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