China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited (CSSC) and the China Maritime Safety Administration (China MSA) signed a strategic agreement on contributing to building China's strength in transportation and maritime matters on July 15.
According to the agreement, the two sides will cooperate in a wide range of areas including smart transportation equipment, high-end maritime equipment, marine environmental protection technology, maritime policy and technical regulation study, international maritime affairs, maritime security equipment and talent cultivation.
In respect of smart shipments, CSSC and China MSA will work on advancing smart vessels and navigation support and on developing intelligent traffic control systems and examination and monitoring technologies.
They will also plan smart shipment development and carry out testing and demonstration applications of related technologies.
With a view to smart and green manufacturing, the two sides intend to initiate study on technical regulations of high-end marine equipment like cruises, large-scale liquefied natural gas vessels, the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), arctic navigation vessels, new energy vessels and aquafarms.
The study will offer support for development of high-end marine equipment in aspects of policy and technical regulations and push forward demonstrative application of the new equipment.
Development of technologies and products related to new energy-driven vessels and their energy conservation and environment protection facilities are also within the scope of cooperation between the CSSC and China MSA, and are expected to lead to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and management of energy efficiency on vessels, safe utilization of low sulfur oil during shipment research and construction of LNG refueling facilities as well as optimization of environmental protection standards, regulations and monitoring systems.
What's more, effective measures will be made by the two sides to face such public health emergencies as the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and other special circumstances, which are expected to promote a sound and orderly development of the shipping and marine equipment manufacturing industries.
Impacted by the pandemic, orders for new ships around the world dropped 50 percent in the first half of 2020.
A backbone of China's shipping industry, CSSC strengthened its technological innovation and signed orders for 73 vessels with a deadweight of 5.35 million tons, up 34.2 percent year-on-year.
The deadweight occupied 30.4 percent of the global volume, ranking first in the world.
While taking measures of pandemic prevention and control, CSSC and China MSA will deepen cooperation in information sharing of global vessel construction, promote sound and healthy development of marine equipment manufacturing and its related industries and maintain a stable and smooth shipbuilding industry and logistics supply chain.
(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)
