In the first half of the year, Europe's replenishment demand drove global LNG trade growth

Affected by the cold winter in the first quarter, Europe's replenishment demand has boosted the international liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade volume in the first half of this year. "However, this increase is still at a historically low level due to the substitution of renewable energy and the sustained high prices of gas, which suppress market vitality. It is expected that global LNG trade will continue the basic supply-demand pattern of the past two years in the second half of the year, but considering unknown factors such as weather and geopolitics, the global LNG market supply and demand may still show a tight balance," said Julie, a natural gas analyst at an international energy analysis agency, when discussing the international LNG trade situation in the first half of the year and the forecast for the second half. According to Kpler's global shipping data, the global LNG trade volume in the first half of this year was 210 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.24%. The global trade volume is still in an expansion phase, but this growth rate is only slightly higher than that of 2024 in the past decade. Specifically, from the perspective of supply-demand fundamentals and price trends, the global LNG liquefaction capacity was put into operation at a faster pace in the first half of this year, and due to the increased proportion of U.S. supply, the leading global LNG suppliers have become more concentrated