The Marine economy is an important pillar for the development of coastal cities and an important “blue engine” for the country. In 2023, the country’s Marine gross domestic product (GDP) was 9,909.7 billion yuan, up 6.0% from the previous year. The growth rate was 0.8 percentage points higher than the GDP. It accounted for 7.9 percent of the gross domestic product, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous year.
Against the backdrop of the Marine economy gradually becoming the “blue engine” for China’s high-quality economic development, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Tianjin, Dalian and other places across the country have proposed the goal of building global Marine centers. Among them, Shenzhen, with its solid Marine industry foundation in the region, the high attention of the government and the pioneering “innovation gene” in the region, It is riding the waves to compete for the title of global Marine center city.
The ocean is a strategic location for high-quality development, and new energy is an important support for the green and sustainable development of the Marine economy. At a time when the government has been intensively introducing policies guiding the development of the Marine industry, where is the development of the Marine new energy industry in Shenzhen? What are the representative enterprises in Shenzhen and where will the future development opportunities lie?
Marine new energy industry
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the country has made major deployments of “building a strong maritime country”. Against the backdrop of China’s current efforts to build a new energy system, the country’s Marine new energy industry is entering an unprecedented strategic development period. In a broad sense, Marine new energy refers to the renewable natural energy contained in the ocean, mainly including wind energy, solar energy, tidal energy, wave energy, tidal current energy, as well as seawater temperature difference energy and salinity difference energy. Among them, except for tidal energy which has been commercialized, only offshore wind power has been developed on a large scale. In addition, the empowerment of traditional Marine industries by new energy is also an important form of Marine new energy development. Among them, Marine engineering new energy equipment represented by electric ships is an emerging industry that has attracted much attention in recent years.
Shenzhen leads the nation in Marine economic growth
Since Shenzhen was first given the task of building a “global Marine center city” in 2017, to the official release and implementation of the “Shenzhen Marine Development Plan (2023-2035)” in May 2023, Shenzhen is riding the waves to compete for a global Marine center city. With 1,951 square kilometers of sea area (more than half of the city’s total area), a total coastline of 260.5 kilometers, and high-quality Marine resources such as excellent ports like Yantian, Xiadong, Shekou, Chiwan and Mawan, Shenzhen’s Marine gross domestic product exceeded 320 billion yuan in 2023, accounting for more than 9.2% of the city’s GDP, and the number of marine-related enterprises increased to nearly 30,000. The growth rate of Marine gross domestic product and its share of GDP are both significantly higher than the national average.In terms of Marine new energy, Shenzhen has developed offshore new energy and new quality productivity mainly through the development of offshore wind power, wind-solar-storage integration, energy storage (hydrogen, etc.) and new energy vessels, with a diversified industrial pattern mainly focusing on solar energy, wind energy and energy storage. In the field of electric vessels, with its deep advantages in the new energy industry, Shenzhen’s new energy vessel industry has taken the lead in demonstration development. At the same time, Shenzhen leads the nation in the layout of shore power systems for the development of electric vessels. As of 2023, the port of Shenzhen has built 49 berths with shore power supply capacity, with a shore power facility coverage rate of 87%; A total of 924 international vessels used shore power, consuming 17.98 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, reducing pollution by about 512 tons and carbon dioxide emissions by about 11,570 tons; The shore power consumption of ships on international routes at Shenzhen Port has reached a record high, ranking first among all ports in China.
Racern Technology contributes to the development of the Marine new energy industry
In terms of new energy vessels, thanks to Shenzhen’s well-developed electronic information industry chain, Shenzhen has taken the advantageous Marine electronic information industry as the entry point to actively explore new energy vessels, empower green shipping and green ports, and promote the agglomeration development of upstream and downstream supporting industries such as Marine power batteries, motors, box-type power supplies, battery management systems, charging and battery swapping equipment, and shore power storage integration facilities.
Shenzhen Racern Technology Co., Ltd. is dedicated to the design and manufacture of lithium battery systems for new energy ships and is the first company in China to obtain series type approval from China Classification Society. It has delivered lithium battery systems for more than 1,100 new energy ships, including the world’s largest all-electric passenger ship, “Three Gorges 1”, which was initiated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The “Three Gorges No.1 on the Yangtze River” is a 1,300-passenger all-electric cruise ship. It is classified by China Classification Society (CCS) and is currently the world’s largest and most intelligent new energy cruise ship in terms of capacity. Powered by clean hydropower, it can travel 100 kilometers on a single charge, replace 530 tons of fuel oil and reduce 1,660 tons of harmful gas emissions annually. It is a truly green vessel that achieves “zero emissions, zero noise, zero pollution”.
The “New National Industrial Catalogue” points the way for the development of Marine new energy
In late December 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission revised and released the Catalogue for the Guidance of Industrial Structure Adjustment (2024 Edition) (hereinafter referred to as the new Catalogue), adding encouraged items such as “Green and intelligent Transport vessels”, “Green and intelligent Manufacturing technology and equipment”, and “Clean Energy and New energy vessels”. Compared with the 2019 version, the new Catalogue places greater emphasis on the high-end, intelligent, digital and green transformation and upgrading of the Marine industry.
Marine equipment
New encouraged items such as “Green intelligent transport vessels”, “Green intelligent Manufacturing technology and equipment”, and “Clean energy and new energy vessels” are added to encourage the development of specialized intelligent manufacturing, maintenance technology and equipment such as intelligent welding lines, as well as alternative fuel-powered vessels such as LNG, pure electric, fuel cell, and biomass fuel.
Port and shipping
New entries such as “Green and Safe Shipping”, “Smart Water Transport”, and “Development and application of modern logistics information technology” have been added to encourage the construction and application of smart ports, smart shipping, smart ports, as well as ship charging and battery swapping facilities and port ship shore power facilities.
In Marine fisheries
New entries such as “Smart Agriculture and New Agricultural Technology Development” and “green agriculture” have been added to encourage demonstration and application of intelligent aquaculture management systems, green production technologies for agricultural, livestock and fishery products, artificial reefs, green and environmentally friendly functional fishing gear, etc.
Cluster 2.0 sets the tone for Shenzhen’s Marine new energy
In the Shenzhen Industrial Cluster 2.0 document, Shenzhen’s Marine industry is listed as one of the five comprehensive upgrading industrial clusters. As one of the emerging strategic industries in the growth stage, in the future, Shenzhen’s Marine industry should focus on deepening development as the main direction, promote the application of scenarios in key areas, promote the characteristic development of industrial clusters, and through the development within 10 to 15 years, develop “deep earth and deep sea” into the backbone of strategic emerging industries.