By AlexGo @Adobe Stock

Ryan McMorrow, Tina Hu, and Edward White of the Financial Times report that cheap natural gas is spurring Chinese truckers to switch over from diesel, leaving Germany’s Daimler Truck dealing with a ‘catastrophic’ sales drop. They write:

Cheap natural gas is spurring Chinese truckers to switch to rigs powered by the fuel, damping the country’s appetite for oil and contributing to a “catastrophic” sales drop for the China unit of one of the world’s largest truckmakers.

While the country’s rapid adoption of electric cars has been in the spotlight, significant change has also been taking place in China’s freight industry.

Analysts said the swift rise of natural gas-powered trucks, particularly heavy-duty vehicles of 14 tonnes and above, had helped thrust China past peak diesel demand and moved it closer to reaching peak oil. […]

But Chinese customs data shows actual crude oil imports from January to August by volume were down 3 per cent from a year earlier. Pipeline gas and LNG imports by volume rose 12 per cent per cent in the same period.

“In the past, I rarely saw an LNG truck come into my station,” said a fill-up attendant in Beijing. “There’s been an explosive increase since last year.”

Read more here.