China targets some Australian LNG cargoes as trade spat widens – Bloomberg

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

China has asked smaller liquefied natural gas (LNG) importers to halt their new cargoes from Australia, Bloomberg reports, citing people with knowledge of the directive from government officials.

Key takeaways

"The firms have received verbal orders from government officials to avoid purchasing additional LNG from Australia for delivery over the next year."

"Larger state-owned importers that carry out almost 90% of purchases haven’t received any guidance and plan to continue buying Australian LNG."

"China imports more than 40% of its LNG from Australia, one of the world’s biggest suppliers."

This comes after China has imposed tariffs on a wide number of committees imported from Australia, which has led to the worsening of the trade and diplomatic ties between the two trading partners.

AUD/USD reaction

The above headlines have little to no impact on the aussie dollar, as AUD/USD flirts with three-month highs of 0.7876. The spot is up 0.40% on the day.

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

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