⛽️ LNG 🇷🇺 has gone East. Urgently and with a discount or the country needs locomotives, the country needs metal
Russia in November supplied 1.6 million tons of LNG to China — a record. Supplies have more than doubled over the year, surpassing Australia, only yielding to Qatar. Bloomberg nods, the numbers confirm😉
💸 Why did it happen?
Because it's cheap.
So cheap that Russian LNG has become the most affordable among 12 suppliers to China. Sanctions are sanctions, but a discount is a universal argument.
📉 Europe is gone, Asia is found
Previously, gas was going to the EU. Now — to China.
The logic is simple:
if it can't be expensive and close — then it must be cheap and far🤪
✔️ Pros:
— Exports are ongoing, foreign currency earnings are maintained
— LNG plants are loaded
— China is a large and stable buyer
❌ Cons:
— Sales at a significant discount
— Margins are lower than before in Europe
— China dictates the terms, rather than negotiating on equal footing
⚠️ Sanctions work not like a "switch," but like a slow compression of the economy.
There are exports — yes.
There is income — yes.
But this is no longer a growth economy, but an economy of survival and reorientation.
📌 China for Russia now is not a partner, but an anchor buyer.
Without it, it would be worse.
With it — just not as painful.