Four LNG cargoes loaded from Sabine Pass LNG and Plaquemines LNG between 5 and 18 May initially signalled arrival in Tianjin, China. All four have since updated their declared destinations and are headed for South Korea and Japan instead.
The Id'Asah is signalling Pyeongtaek, the Umm Al Hanaya is now showing Tongyeong and the Limail is showing Incheon. The Al Sene is showing Senboku, Japan. Scheduled arrivals for the four vessels are between 16 and 30 June as of the time of writing. The four cargoes are carrying about 0.28MMt combined, according to our calculations.
As we have noted before, 'Tianjin' has frequently served as a placeholder for a Chinese destination yet to be determined. We also flagged that, as current circumstances bear out, 'Tianjin' appears to have acted as a de facto placeholder for 'somewhere in Asia'. With all four cargoes now resolved to non-Chinese destinations, that pattern has materialised in full.
We highlight that a similar caution applies to the Korean signals. Pyeongtaek, Tongyeong and Incheon are all KOGAS import terminals, and any of the three can serve as a placeholder for South Korea as a general destination. Reassignment among them mid-voyage is common, so the specific terminals shown may yet change again before discharge, likely as KOGAS balances cargo volumes and delivery timing across its network. This is less drastic than the China signal, since it stays within one country, but the final discharge points are not necessarily settled.
No direct US-to-China LNG delivery is therefore likely to materialise from this group, according to their current AIS signals. The last such delivery would thus remain the Mu Lan, which loaded at Corpus Christi on 16 December 2024 and discharged at Zhangzhou on 6 February 2025.
Worth watching: whether the Korean and Japanese terminal signals hold or shift again before discharge, and whether further European-bound US cargoes show similar mid-voyage destination changes through June. (June 3, 2026, Source: https://lngjournal.com/index.php/latest-news-mainmenu-47/item/116493-us-lng-cargoes-diverted-from-china-to-japan-korea)
UNITED STATES - LNG - SUPPLIES - IMPORTS - EXPORTS