A looming trade war between China and the United States saw zero shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States to China between march and April 2019, according to shipping data, highlighting a sharp decline in U.S. LNG exports.The market fears that as the trade war between China and the us heats up, China will import less LNG from the us and us LNG exports will be hit hard again.Reuters reported that the United States did not export LNG products to China from march to April.Since 2019, only two LNG freighters have been shipped from the United States to China. Compared with January to April 2018, when China and the United States did not start a trade war, there were 14 LNG freighters from the United States to China, indicating that the amount of LNG exported to China from the United States has been greatly reduced.
A trade war between China and the United States is not constructive and will only increase costs for our Chinese customers, threatening to hit the U.S. LNG market, a top U.S. natural gas executive said.Since the start of a trade war between China and the United States in July 2018, China began expanding its purchases of 10 percent tariffs with the United States in September of that year.But as China and the United States engage in intense trade talks in 2019, China has pledged to expand its purchases of U.S. energy products, including one of China's three barrels of oil, sinopec, which struck an $18 billion LNG purchase deal with chanel energy in early march.
Separately, us oil and exxon mobil and zhejiang energy group announced in April that they had signed a 20-year agreement.According to the agreement, exxon mobil will deliver 1 million tons of LNG annually to zhejiang energy group, although the two sides did not disclose the price.The us is the world's fastest growing LNG exporter, while China is the fastest growing LNG importer.According to the international gas union, the U.S. LNG exports in 2018 increased by 61% compared with 2017, making it the fourth largest LNG exporter in the world. However, with the recent increase of energy use prospects in mainland China, the mainland has become the second largest LNG importer in the world, and LNG imports increased by 39% last year.
