Hellenic Shipping News: Global LNG market to decelerate sharply in 2020 amid supply and demand cuts

June 10, 2020

“[O]ur view is that there will be a decline in LNG demand year on year,” Jason Feer, Global Head of Business Intelligence at brokerage Poten & Partners, said. His baseline for LNG trade in 2019 is just under 360 million mt/year.

Poten expects LNG demand in 2020 to fall below the 2019 levels by 6.7 million mt, and said that even this view may not be bearish enough, with a potential loss of as much as 13.8 million mt due to risks of secondary waves of the pandemic and economic recessions.

Feer said that demand declines are spread across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Kuwait and Singapore, among others, while China and some European countries will show marginal growth.

Poten expects global LNG imports to average only 29 million mt/month from May through December compared with 32 million mt/month from January through April.

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