China has stopped importing liquefied natural gas from the United States in 60 days, which is the longest interruption period in 5 years, as the deterioration of relations between Beijing and Washington, buyers in the country, pushed the country to convert their shipments.
There are no American shipments currently heading to China, according to Kepler to track ship data.
During the first period of US President Donald Trump, China did not receive any shipment from the United States for approximately 400 days until April 2020, according to data trackers published by Bloomberg.
Continuous stopping
“It is likely that the liquefied natural gas trade between China and the United States is likely to continue for the rest of 2025, with another increase in the Chinese tariffs on American LNG from 15% to 49%, in response to the most striking customs definitions imposed by Trump,” said Xiung, head of Chinese gas research at Reesad Energy.
“We expect to see more resale by Chinese companies,” she added.
The current geopolitical conflict began to differentiate between the largest seller and a liquefied natural gas seller.
Beijing imposed a 15% customs tariff on US LNG shipments from last February in response to American fees, which last week exacerbated another set of Chinese drawings on all imports from the United States.
American shipments
Chinese LNG buyers are receiving US shipments under long -term contracts, meaning past winter and strong stocks that China is not in urgent need of liquefied natural gas, giving the country merchants greater flexibility to resell American supplies to its competitors in Europe and Asia.
This step was a relief to Europe, which needed more LNG to re -fill its stocks and compensate for the loss of gas supply through Russian pipelines.
