深大（盐田）工业设计特色学院 在盐田国际创意港开学
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Photo shows a shipbuilding and repair base in the Shidao Administrative Zone, Rongcheng city, east China's Shandong Province. [Photo/Li Xinjun]
China's marine economy reached a historic milestone in 2024, with the total value surpassing 10 trillion yuan (about $1.4 trillion) for the first time. Last year, the marine economy expanded by 5.9 percent year on year, accounting for around 7.8 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
Qu Huanjun, deputy director of the second production and operations department at Jiangnan Shipyard under China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited (CSSC), watched as a liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier returning from a sea trial at the shipyard's base on Shanghai's Changxing Island.
"This 175,000-cubic-meter LNG vessel successfully completed its trial, meeting all performance standards and earning high praise from the ship owner," he said. According to him, 2025 marks a peak year for LNG ship deliveries, with the Jiangnan Shipyard alone expected to deliver more than 10 vessels.
"We currently have orders in hand for around 60 LNG ships worth approximately 150 billion yuan, with deliveries scheduled through 2031," Qu said.
This reflects the strong momentum of China's shipbuilding industry. At the Shanghai Marine Diesel Engine Research Institute of CSSC, director Dong Jianfu closely monitored operational data of a comprehensive ship-based carbon capture system.
Photo shows photovoltaic panels placed above a pond for marine aquaculture in Yishi town, Ninghai county, Ningbo city, east China's Zhejiang Province. [Photo/Lin Lijun]
He explained that this independently developed system can capture more than 80 percent of a ship's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, converting them into liquid CO2 with a purity exceeding 99.5 percent. In April, a 14,000-TEU large container ship equipped with this system successfully completed liquid CO2 discharge at Yangshan Port in Shanghai, marking a major breakthrough in China's green shipping technology.
In the production workshop of CSSC-MES Diesel Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of CSSC Power (Group) Co., Ltd., the world's first and most powerful dual-fuel engine with an intelligent exhaust gas recirculation system roared during testing.
The dual-fuel engine runs on LNG and fuel oil, according to Li Cheng, chairman of CSSC Power (Group) Co., Ltd. In gas mode, it achieves over a 99 percent reduction in sulfur compounds, more than a 20 percent reduction in CO2, and an over 80 percent reduction in nitrogen oxides.
From domestically produced cruise ships to LNG carriers, and from green engines to carbon capture technology, China's shipbuilding industry is climbing to the high end of the industrial chain.
The three major indicators of the industry—new orders, output and orders in hand—all exceeded 50 percent of the global market share for the first time in 2024, measured by corrected gross tonnage, according of official data. Chinese shipbuilders leveraged their competitive advantages to export vessels to 197 countries and regions.
Photo shows wind turbines at an offshore wind farm in Zhuhai city, south China's Guangdong Province. [People's Daily/Lyu Huadang]
Shi Suixiang, director of the National Marine Data and Information Service, said that in the first quarter of this year, the marine engineering equipment manufacturing industry showed strong development momentum, with China's newly contracted marine engineering orders, delivered orders, and orders in hand increasing by 57.1 percent, 114.3 percent, and 24.2 percent year on year, respectively.
"Marine manufacturing industries maintained rapid growth. In particular, the added value of China's marine shipbuilding industry saw a 14.9 percent year-on-year increase," Shi said.
"This fully demonstrates China's international competitiveness and industrial chain resilience in high-end marine equipment manufacturing, providing solid support for the marine economy's transition to high-quality development," Shi added.
The construction of modern marine ranches has also advanced steadily in China. This represents just one vivid example of the country's efforts to develop deep-sea aquaculture and promote the marine fishery sector's intelligent and diversified transformation.
Shi noted that in 2024, the value-added of the marine fishery sector reached 488 billion yuan, up 4.0 percent year on year.
He added that in the first quarter of this year, China's marine aquatic product output rose by 4.5 percent year on year, with marine aquaculture production growing 5.7 percent over the same period last year.
Currently, offshore wind power is gradually entering a new phase of large-scale, clustered development, while the utilization of seawater resources continues to expand. In 2024, China's offshore wind power generation surged nearly 30 percent year on year, contributing to green and low-carbon economic and social development.
Last year, the country's seawater desalination scale exceeded 400 million tonnes, while the use of seawater for industrial cooling surpassed 180 billion tonnes.
The value-added output of emerging marine industries grew 7.2 percent year on year in 2024, with sectors such as marine medicine and bioproducts achieving new breakthroughs.
Researchers at the Marine Biomedical Research Institute of Qingdao in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, are accelerating the development of drugs from ocean-derived compounds. A new anti-tumor drug, BG136, has entered Phase II clinical trials.
