Japan’s Oil Imports Fail to Bring Relief to Tanker Owners
According to Banchero Costa, “in the first 7 months of 2020, Japan imported 74.9 mln tonnes of crude oil by sea, according to vessel tracking data from Refinitiv. This represents a net decline of -13.0% y-o-y, compared to the 86.0 mln tonnes imported in the same seven-month period of 2019. Things were still Ok-ish in the first quarter of the year, but went into freefall in the second quarter. On a single-month basis, January 2020 was down -3.3% year-on-year to 12.6 mln tonnes, whilst February 2020 showed a -1.5% y-o-y decline to 11.8 mln tonnes. In March 2020 arrivals rebounded slightly to 12.1 mln tonnes, up +2.0% m-o-m from February, but down -4.1% year-on-year. April 2020 recorded again 11.6 mln tonnes, down -4.1% m-o-m from March, and -8.5% y-o-y drop from 11.6 mln tonneslast year”.
The shipbroker added that “from May, things went from bad to worse. In May 2020 arrivals fell to 10.1 mln tonnes, down -12.9% m-o-m from April, and down -17.4% yearon-year. In June, imports declined further to 7.3 mln tonnes, down -27.2% m-om and -33.3% year-on-year. In July, they rebounded slightly to 9.3 mln tonnes, up +27.2% m-o-m but still down -25.5% year-on-year. Japan has always depended heavily on importsfrom the Middle East. In the first 7 months of 2020, as much as 91.5% of Japan’s crude imports were shipped from the Arabian Gulf. Shipments from Saudi Arabia to Japan decreased by -11.4% y-o-y in Jan-Jul 2020, to 28.8 mln tonnes, from 32.5 mln tonnes in the same period last year. Saudi Arabia accounts now for 38.4% of Japan’s total crude imports”.
Banchero Costa went on to mention that “arrivals from Qatar also declined by -16.1% y-o-y in Jan-Jul 2020, to 7.2 mln tonnes, from 8.5 mln tonnes in the same period last year. Qatar accounts for 9.6% of Japan’s total crude imports. On the other hand, imports from the UAE increased by +2.0% yearon-year, to 23.6 mln tonnes, from 23.1 mln tonnes in the same period last year. The UAE accounts for 31.5% of Japan’s total crude imports. Shipments from Kuwait also increased, by +14.6% year-on-year to 8.1 mln tonnes. Kuwait accounts for 10.8% of Japan’s total crude imports. Elsewhere, shipments from Russia to Japan declined by -21.2% y-o-y to 2.9 mln tonnes. Surprisingly, imports from the United States collapsed this year. They were down -77.0% y-o-y in Jan-Jul 2020 to 0.6 mln tonnes, from 2.5 mln tonnes in the same period last year”, the shipbroker concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide