Reuters' Osamu Tsukimori and Aaron Shedrick write that Japan's soaring coal use may push down LNG imports this year

Japan is burning so much coal as it tries to lower the cost of replacing nuclear energy that it may see a surprise dip in imports of liquefied natural gas in 2013, the first in four years. Many analysts are still forcasting a rise, given that Japan's last two nuclear power plants went offline in September, finishing a complete shudown of the industry started by the March 2011 Fukushima disaster. Read the article