China's maritime economy keeps recovery trend in nine months
In the first three quarters of the year, the gross domestic product or GDP of China's maritime economy was 6.2 trillion yuan ($969.1 billion), up 9.5 percent year-on-year – a performance that represented a 2.1 percent increase on average for the past two years, according to statistics issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources on Oct 30.
Cui Xiaojian, deputy director of the National Marine Data and Information Service, said that during the period China's maritime economy generally showed a recovery trend, laying a good foundation for stable operations for the remainder of the year. Moreover, in the fourth quarter, the sector is expected to maintain the stable recovery.
Reports are that in the first three quarters of the year, the marine emerging industries continued to recover rapidly.
Of these, the production and operations of marine renewable energy utilization continued to improve, with more than 80 percent of key enterprises achieving year-on-year growth in operating revenue.
The maritime medicine and biological products industry enjoyed a good growth trend – more than 70 percent of the key enterprises in the sector reported year-on-year growth in operating revenue, while nearly 20 percent of the enterprises achieved over 30 percent growth in operating revenue during the three quarters.
The offshore engineering equipment manufacturing industry stabilized and recovered, with more than 70 percent of key related enterprises achieving year-on-year growth in operating revenue and profits.
Meanwhile, the traditional marine industries posted stable and improving results during the nine months.
Of these, offshore oil and gas production expanded steadily, with output increasing by 7.6 percent and 6.3 percent year-on-year, respectively.
The shipbuilding industry also recovered steadily, with demand from the international shipping market growing rapidly. The number of orders for newly commissioned ships in China increased by 257.2 percent year-on-year during the three quarters, hitting the highest level in 10 years.
The marine transportation industry also continued to grow. Cargo throughput and container throughput at the coastal ports during the period was 7.5 billion tons and 190 million standard containers (TEU), up 6.3 percent and 8.9 percent year-on-year, respectively. The ocean cargo volumes and passenger volumes were 3 billion tons and 60.74 million TEUs, up 6.8 percent and 29.8 percent respectively.
In addition, the vitality of the various business entities steadily recovered.
The number of newly registered companies in the maritime industry under key monitoring was 13,743 – up 8.3 percent year-on-year and recovering to 80 percent of the level in 2019. The number of maritime companies that were wound up during the nine months was 8,405 enterprises, down 7.3 percent year-on-year.
Maritime foreign trade grew steadily. The total volume of seaborne imports and exports increased by 23.2 percent year-on-year, of which exports grew 22.9 percent and imports grew by 23.6 percent.
Exports of major sea-related products increased as well. Imports and exports volumes of ships, seafood products, wind turbines and components increased by 27.7 percent, 1.3 percent and 49.2 percent year-on-year respectively.