JKM

The Japan Korea Marker (JKM) is the benchmark price for spot LNG delivered to Northeast Asian ports, primarily Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan. It is assessed by S&P Global Platts and published daily, reflecting bids, offers, and transactions for LNG cargoes delivered into the region. In early April 2026, the JKM-TTF spread narrowed to USD 0.10/MMBtu, effectively eliminating Europe's cost advantage for attracting flexible Atlantic LNG cargoes and triggering a series of diversions from Europe to Asia.

JKM was launched by Platts in 2009 to provide price transparency in what had previously been an entirely long-term, oil-indexed contracting market. As the global LNG trade has become more spot-oriented, particularly since 2015, JKM has become the reference price for a growing proportion of physical cargoes and financial derivatives including JKM swaps and futures traded on CME and ICE. The JKM-TTF spread is watched by traders and policymakers as the key signal for inter-basin cargo allocation: when JKM is significantly above TTF, cargoes flow to Asia; when TTF is above JKM, cargoes flow to Europe.

The convergence of JKM and TTF in April 2026 is unusual and reflects the competing pull of two simultaneous supply crises: Middle East LNG disruption tightening European supply (pushing TTF up) and recovering Chinese industrial demand drawing more spot LNG into Northeast Asia (supporting JKM). When the two benchmarks converge, cargo allocation becomes a coin-flip driven by port costs, shipping distances, and contract flexibility, making European LNG import volumes extremely sensitive to small pricing shifts.