Jan. 23, 2018 12:44 PM ET|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor
The price of liquefied natural gas is near three-year highs as China replaces coal with gas, sucking up global supplies of the fuel, WSJ reports.

Chinese LNG imports rose by nearly 50% last year and the country has now passed South Korea to become the world’s second largest importer behind Japan, but the extra imports still have not been enough for some parts of Chinese industry; BASF (OTCQX:BASFY) stopped producing some chemicals at a Chongqing-based facility due to “a supply shortage of natural gas," and says production remains suspended and does not yet known when it will resume.

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B), the biggest LNG shipper and producer, estimates trade will increase by a third from 2016 to 2020 to 350M metric tons/year.