A US liquefied natural gas cargo has arrived in China for the first time in 17 months, but market participants expect the shipment to be re-exported rather than sold into the domestic market, Kpler said in a Thursday note.
Kpler data showed the QatarEnergy-operated LNG carrier, Al Fat'h, berthed at PipeChina's Yangpu LNG terminal in Hainan on Thursday, carrying LNG loaded from Venture Global's 20 million metric tons per year Plaquemines LNG export facility in Louisiana.
The arrival marks the first US LNG delivery to China since February 2025, when shipments halted after Beijing imposed additional tariffs on US imports amid renewed trade tensions between the two countries.
Shipping documents reviewed by Kpler sources identified QatarEnergy Trading as the consignee and Venture Global as the consignor.
Market participants said the cargo was likely sold by QatarEnergy Trading to China's state-owned PetroChina on a delivered ex-ship basis, although Kpler said it could not independently verify the transaction.
Despite reaching Chinese waters, traders expect the cargo to be redirected to other Asian markets, citing weak domestic gas demand and more attractive international spot prices.
"If domestic supplies were tight, the cargo would more likely have gone to a southern mainland terminal and entered the domestic pipeline network," said Nelson Xiong, senior LNG and natural gas analyst at Kpler Insight.
"Hainan's gas balance is not particularly tight, and it makes more economic sense to sell the cargo into Southeast or Northeast Asia at current spot prices than to absorb it into the domestic market," he added.
Yangpu LNG terminal, China's first LNG facility with bonded status, allows cargoes to be stored and re-exported without entering the domestic market or incurring import tariffs. The terminal has previously been used by PetroChina for LNG re-export and bunkering operations.
Stronger global LNG prices following renewed tensions around the Strait of Hormuz have further improved the economics of re-exporting cargoes from bonded storage.
China's domestic gas market remains well supplied, with falling domestic gas prices, weaker LNG truck demand and limited buying interest in recent auctions pointing to subdued demand.
A recent auction offering about 200 million cubic meters of gas for the second half of July was left partially unsold, Kpler said.