China and India are the engine room of global LNG demand growth. They are the two emerging tigers of the big 5 Asian buyers club (alongside the traditional JKT countries). Strong Chinese growth has been behind the 2021 step up in Asian LNG demand (see left hand chart compared to the last 5 years). Indian demand is a bit more nuanced given its price responsive nature (driven by the power sector & industrial buyers). The right hand chart shows India pulling back on demand in Jan 2021 given very high spot prices, with demand rising again as prices softened in Feb & Mar 2021. Indian demand this year is a step up relative to 2016-19 volumes, but remains below the huge Q1 2020 demand jump in response to low spot prices heading into the Covid shock.
LNG demand & the two Asian tigers