On 23 January Bloomberg reported that China’s General Administration of Customs has just confirmed that China’s imports of LNG now surpass South Korea’s.
According to the article, China imported 38.1 million tons of LNG in 2017, compared to 37.6 million tons imported by South Korea in the same year. Japan remains the world’s largest importer, having shipped in 72.3 million tons through the end of November 2017, according to government data.
China’s surge is said to stem from President Xi Jinping’s efforts to clean the air in smoggy cities by replacing coal-burning furnaces with cleaner natural gas.