JKM LNG
Platts
The spot price of a liquefied gas cargo delivered to Northeast Asia, and the third corner of the global gas triangle.
Top Producers
share of 2024 LNG exports
Top Consumers
share of 2024 LNG imports
Main Uses
global LNG consumption by sector, 2024
Top Exporters
share of 2024 LNG exports
Top Importers
share of 2024 LNG imports
All-time high assessment
$84.76/MMBtu
March 7, 2022
All-time low
below $2/MMBtu
April 2020
Global LNG trade
roughly 405 million tonnes
as of 2024
Spot and short-term share of trade
roughly one third
as of 2024
Typical oil-indexed alternative
roughly 12-15 percent slope of Brent
as of 2025
The Japan Korea Marker, launched by Platts in 2009, assesses the spot price of an LNG cargo delivered ex-ship to Japan, South Korea, China, or Taiwan, quoted in US dollars per MMBtu for half-month delivery windows. It was created because Asia, the destination for the majority of the world's LNG, had no transparent spot price: nearly all supply moved under 20-year contracts indexed to crude oil, typically priced at a percentage slope of Brent. JKM gave the growing pool of uncommitted cargoes a benchmark, and cleared JKM swaps on CME and ICE gave traders a way to hedge it.
The spot market JKM measures has grown from a rounding error to roughly a third of global LNG trade, and the index has lived through extraordinary volatility. JKM fell below $2/MMBtu in the spring of 2020 when the pandemic crushed demand, then set its all-time record of $84.76/MMBtu on March 7, 2022 in the panic after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, when Europe and Asia were bidding for the same finite fleet of cargoes. The JKM-TTF spread now functions as the routing signal of the global gas market: it tells every flexible cargo on the water whether to sail east or west.
Structurally, JKM sits between the world's largest buyers and an expanding supply base. Japanese and Korean demand is mature and tied to nuclear restarts; Chinese demand is the swing factor, switching between aggressive spot buying and near-absence depending on domestic prices; India and Southeast Asia buy when prices are low. With global trade around 405 million tonnes in 2024 and large US and Qatari capacity additions arriving through the late 2020s, JKM is the price that will absorb the coming supply wave.
How It Trades
| Venue | Platts assessment (physical benchmark); cleared derivatives on CME Group and ICE |
| Benchmark contract | Platts JKM assessment; CME and ICE JKM futures and swaps cash settled against the monthly average assessment |
| Contract size | 10,000 MMBtu per cleared futures lot (a physical cargo is roughly 3.4 trillion Btu) |
| Price terms | USD per MMBtu, delivered ex-ship Northeast Asia, half-month delivery windows |
| Settlement | Derivatives settle financially against the average of Platts JKM assessments for the contract month; physical cargoes negotiate against the same marker. |
| Typical curve | Winter premium for December through February delivery driven by North Asian heating demand, with a softer shoulder-season trough in spring and autumn; the curve also embeds the expected TTF spread that routes Atlantic cargoes. |
| Liquidity | Deep for a young market: cleared JKM derivative volumes regularly exceed physical spot trade many times over, though liquidity thins beyond the front year and remains far below Henry Hub or TTF. |
Where It Trades
approximate share of global traded volume, 2025; JKM has no single exchange home, most volume is OTC or cleared swaps split across CME and ICE rather than an exchange order book
Supply and Demand
Top producers
- United States (largest LNG exporter since 2023)
- Australia (largest supplier to North Asia by proximity)
- Qatar (lowest-cost producer, expanding North Field capacity toward the late 2020s)
- Russia (Sakhalin and Yamal cargoes still flowing to Asia)
- Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea
Liquefaction capacity is the binding constraint: a single train outage, such as Freeport in June 2022, moves the global balance. A large capacity wave from the United States and Qatar arrives between 2025 and 2028.
Top consumers
- China (the largest LNG importer in most recent years, and the most price-sensitive)
- Japan (the original LNG market, demand tied to nuclear restart pace)
- South Korea
- India and Taiwan
- Southeast Asian emerging buyers (Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam)
Major uses
- Power generation
- City gas and heating
- Industrial fuel and feedstock
Asian buyers hold portfolios of oil-indexed term contracts and top up with JKM-priced spot cargoes; the ratio of spot to term purchasing rises when JKM is cheap relative to the oil-indexed alternative.
What Moves the Price
- North Asian winter weather and heating demand
- Chinese spot buying appetite versus domestic gas and coal prices
- Japanese and Korean nuclear restarts, which displace LNG-fired power
- The TTF spread, which sets whether Atlantic cargoes sail to Europe or Asia
- Liquefaction outages and new train startups (Freeport, Plaquemines, Qatari expansion)
- Shipping availability and Panama Canal transit constraints, which change effective arbitrage economics
- Oil prices, through the competing oil-indexed term contract alternative
Moments That Made the Market
2009
Platts launches the JKM assessment, giving Asian spot LNG its first benchmark.
2011
The Fukushima disaster in March 2011 shuts Japan's nuclear fleet; LNG demand and spot prices surge.
2016
First US shale-backed cargoes reach Asia, adding destination-flexible supply priced off Henry Hub.
2020
Pandemic glut drops JKM below $2/MMBtu in April 2020, the lowest assessment on record.
2021
Post-pandemic recovery and a cold winter lift JKM into the $30s/MMBtu by October 2021.
2022
JKM prints its all-time record of $84.76/MMBtu on March 7, 2022 after Russia invades Ukraine.
2024
Global LNG trade reaches roughly 405 million tonnes; spot and short-term deals approach a third of the total.
What Changed Since the 2010 Handbook Era
- In 2010 Asian LNG was almost entirely oil-indexed under 20-year contracts; spot trade priced off JKM is now roughly a third of the market.
- The buyer mix inverted: Japan was the unchallenged top importer in 2010, while China, barely an importer then, became the largest and most price-driving buyer.
- US destination-free cargoes created a true global arbitrage where rigid point-to-point trade once stood.
- JKM went from a journalistic reference to a clearable benchmark with deep futures open interest on CME and ICE.
- Price extremes widened from single digits to a sub-$2 low in April 2020 and an $84.76 record in March 2022 within two years.