China slashed its imports of many U.S. energy and agricultural commodities in March amid intensifying trade and tariff tensions with the United States, which are set to further reduce Chinese purchases of American goods this month and in the coming months.
China’s LNG imports from the United States crashed to zero in March as China slapped tariffs on American LNG and other energy products, making these uneconomical for Chinese buyers.
Last year, U.S. LNG represented about 5% of China’s imports of the super-chilled fuel.
Similarly to non-existent LNG, China did not import any wheat from the U.S. in March, per Chinese customs data cited by Bloomberg on Monday.
Chinese cotton imports from the United States plummeted by 90% in March from a year earlier, which purchases of U.S. corn slumped to a five-year low, according to the data.
Among agricultural products, soybean imports into China from the U.S. rose to buck the general trend, as Chinese buyers typically import soybeans from the United States early in the year until the South American harvest becomes available in the autumn, or in the springtime in the northern hemisphere.
Among energy products, imports of U.S. liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) declined by 36%, and purchases of metallurgical coal used in steelmaking plunged by 62% in March from a year earlier, per the Chinese customs data cited by Bloomberg.
Chinese crude oil purchases, on the other hand, rose by 25%, amid higher overall crude imports into China.
Many U.S. cargoes may have also been contracted before the tariff war erupted and right after the uncertainties about Russian supply in January, following the U.S. sanctions on Russian trade. These sanctions, one of the Biden Administration’s last sanctions moves, roiled the oil market flows for several weeks until the supply chain of non-sanctioned tankers reshuffled to service mostly China.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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