China's maritime sector has further clarified its digital and smart transformation path. At the 22nd China Maritime Day Forum on July 11, 2026, Vice Minister of Transport Li Xinghu said that breakthroughs must be accelerated in key technologies such as maritime digital twins, smart cargo management, smart energy efficiency management, and deep-sea meteorological navigation, while pushing forward ship-port coordination technologies like intelligent berthing and intelligent pilotage. He also called for enhanced application of blockchain in shipping to promote digital trade.
Under the forum theme "Smart Empowerment, Navigating the Future," Li stated that future plans include building a number of 100-million-ton and 10-million-TEU smart port zones, exploring unmanned terminals, intelligent engine rooms, and smart ship locks, and promoting large-scale application of artificial intelligence. In the safety domain, intelligent monitoring of major hazard sources at port enterprises will be advanced, "positioning card" systems will be used to strengthen safety management at key dock areas, and remote ship surveys and smart survey platforms will be accelerated.
Significant progress has already been made in maritime digitalization. For ports, 60 automated container terminals have been built and put into operation nationwide, with the fastest single-crane handling efficiency at Shanghai and Qingdao automated terminals exceeding 60 moves per hour. For smart waterways, nearly 20,000 km of electronic navigational charts have been published, with a basically integrated chart network for the Yangtze River system and full coverage on the Xijiang trunk line and the Jiangsu section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. In intelligent ships, autonomous container ships such as "Zhifei" have completed their first fully unmanned voyages, and a group of domestically-built smart ships have been launched. Moreover, unified nationwide ship survey acceptance has been implemented, with over 10,000 ships receiving nearby application, survey, and certification for operating surveys, saving over 150 million yuan in social costs.
Yan Xinping, President of the China Institute of Navigation and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said at the forum that China's comprehensive maritime strength ranks among the world's top, with port throughput, inland waterway mileage, inland shipping scale, and commercial salvage capacity taking first place globally. Shi Heping, President of the Jiangsu Comprehensive Transportation Society, noted that digital and smart technologies are becoming the core driving force for industry upgrading and high-quality development, requiring deeper integration of industry, academia, research, and application.
Data show that China's international maritime transport volume accounts for one-third of the global total. In 2025, China's port cargo throughput reached 18.3 billion tons, container throughput hit 354 million TEUs, and the Chinese-funded shipping fleet reached 490 million deadweight tons.