貿易戰導致運輸路線改變，中國暫停進口美國液化天然氣

 Recently Yahoo News on-line picked up the following:

China Halts US LNG Imports as Trade War Reroutes Deliveries

Stephen Stapczynski

Mon, March 17, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. PDT·4 min read

(Bloomberg) -- China hasn’t imported liquefied natural gas from the US for 40 days, the longest gap in almost two years, as traders are forced to divert shipments elsewhere to avoid Beijing’s tariffs on the super-chilled fuel.

The barren streak is the most extended since June 2023, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. There currently aren’t any US shipments en route to China either, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler, an analytics firm.

The trade war provoked by the Trump administration is threatening to decouple the world’s biggest LNG seller and buyer. Beijing slapped a 15% tariff on US LNG shipments from Feb. 10 in retaliation for blanket American levies on Chinese exports.

In response, Chinese gas buyers with long-term commitments to US projects are reselling those shipments to Europe, according to traders. Firms in China are also reluctant to sign new deals with US facilities, and are looking to procure supply from Asia-Pacific or the Middle East instead.

China Resources Gas International on Monday agreed to buy LNG from Australia’s Woodside Energy Group Ltd. from 2027 for 15 years. It’s the first term-supply deal involving Chinese and Australian companies in years, and follows improved ties between Canberra and Beijing after trade relations hit a nadir at the start of the decade.

China is also boosting its energy security by focusing on producing more gas at home, which will help to curb import growth. Output has been steadily rising, and notched a 3.7% year-on-year increase in the first two months of 2025. At the same time, cheaper alternatives, from coal to renewables to gas piped overland from Russia, are taking the edge off Chinese demand for seaborne gas.

The last trade war under the first Trump presidency brought US LNG sales to China to a halt. Since resuming in 2020, Chinese imports of American gas have risen dramatically to average over 400,000 tons a month.

In January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said LNG should be used as leverage in a new round of trade negotiations. China isn’t among the countries playing ball, though, which bodes ill for US developers trying to secure contracts to kick-start new projects.

Translation

貿易戰導致運輸路線改變，中國暫停進口美國液化天然氣

(彭博社)—中國已經 40 天沒有從美國進口液化天然氣，這是近兩年來最長的中斷時間，因為貿易商被迫將貨物轉移到其他地方，以避免北京對這種超冷凍燃料徵收關稅。

根據彭博社彙編的船舶追蹤數據，此次的淡靜是自 2023 年 6 月以來持續時間最長的一次。根據分析公司 Kpler 的船舶追蹤數據，目前也沒有任何美國貨物運往中國。

特朗普政府挑起的貿易戰有可能使全球最大的液化天然氣賣家和買家脱鈎。北京自 2 月 10 日起對美國液化天然氣徵收 15% 的關稅，以報復美國對中國出口產品徵收的全面關稅。

貿易商稱，作為回應，對美國項目有長期承諾的中國天然氣買家正在將這些天然氣轉售給歐洲。中國企業也不願與美國工廠簽署新的協議，而是尋求從亞太地區或中東地區採購供應。

華潤燃氣國際週一同意自 2027 年起向澳洲 Woodside Energy Group有限公司購買為期 15 年的液化天然氣。這是多年來首份涉及中國和澳洲企業的定期供應協議，也是坎培拉和北京之間的關係在本十年初跌至谷底之後有所改善的結果。

中國也透過集中生產更多的國內天然氣來增強其能源安全，這將有助於抑制進口增加。產量一直在穩步上升，並在 2025 年前兩個月實現了同比增長 3.7%。同時，從煤炭到再生能源到俄羅斯陸路管道輸送的天然氣等更便宜的替代能源正在削弱中國對海運天然氣的需求。

特朗普總統上一次任期內的貿易戰導緻美國對中國的液化天然氣銷售陷入停滯。自2020年恢復以來，中國對美國天然氣的進口量急劇上升，平均每月進口量超過40萬噸。

今年 1 月，國務卿盧比奧 表示，液化天然氣應該成為新一輪貿易談判的籌碼。然而，中國並不在參與其中的國家之列，對試圖獲得合同以啟動新項目的美國開發商來說是個壞兆頭。

So, China hasn’t imported liquefied natural gas from the US for 40 days, the longest gap in almost two years, as traders are forced to divert shipments elsewhere to avoid Beijing’s tariffs on the super-chilled fuel. At the same time, cheaper alternatives from Russia are reducing China’s demand for seaborne gas. Apparently, China is reducing its reliance on the US.