(Yicai) April 24 -- China's imports of liquefied natural gas and crude oil from the United States have become the first commodities to be majorly affected by the new tariff regime imposed in response to US trade measures.

Not a single shipment of US LNG arrived this month or last month, while the figure topped 412,500 tons in March last year, according to shipping schedule figures from Chinese natural gas data provider JLC. US LNG imports fell to 65,700 tons in February from 194,200 tons the month before. 

China has raised import duties on oil and LNG shipped from the US to 94 percent and 99 percent, respectively, in response to the US government’s so-called reciprocal tariff policy.

China has not brought in any LNG from the US since it imposed an additional 15 percent border tax in February, Wang Yafei, a natural gas analyst at JLC, told Yicai.  

According to customs data, China's LNG imports from the US reached 4.33 million tons last year, accounting for about 5.6 percent of its total and less than 1.4 percent of its overall apparent consumption. 

As a result of the higher tariffs, China's US LNG imports may drop by 300,000 to 600,000 tons this year, industry insiders noted. But with alternative sources from other countries and a relatively balanced domestic supply-and-demand situation, this gap can be bridged, they added.

"In addition, it is expected that China will add about 7 billion cubic meters of Russian gas this year, which will also effectively compensate for the shortfall in US imports," said Feng Haicheng, a natural gas analyst at Zhuochuang Information.

Last month, China’s LNG imports from Indonesia surged 330,000 tons from a year earlier, which was within the range of the US LNG import shortfall, Wang pointed out. 

China's imports of US oil plunged 58 percent to 829,000 tons in January from a year earlier, 76 percent to 278,000 tons in February, and 70 percent to 258,000 tons last month, according to data from Kpler.

The country’s oil imports mainly come from the Middle East and Europe, accounting for about 70 percent combined, with imports from Asia and other regions also greatly increasing in recent years, said Sang Xiao, an analyst at Zhuochuang Information. Oil imports from the US account for only about 2 percent, a small and easily replaceable share, he added.

China is a major energy consumer, with oil and natural gas dependency rates of about 70 percent and 40 percent, respectively. Its oil and LNG imports from the US were worth about CNY60 billion (USD8.2 billion) last year. 

However, the share of US oil and gas among China's imports is not high, and the drop will not have a practical impact on domestic supply, the industry insiders pointed out.

Editor: Martin Kadiev