On July 11, the 2024 China Maritime Day Main Forum and the National Maritime Day Activity Week Launch Ceremony with the theme of "Smart Navigation for the Future" were held. Li Xiaopeng, Minister of Transport, said at the forum that the shipping industry should actively adapt to the new trend of green, low-carbon and intelligent development, adhere to innovation-driven and win-win cooperation, accelerate the cultivation of new quality productivity, and achieve high-quality development, so as to lay a solid foundation for striving to accelerate the construction of a strong transportation country and strive to be a pioneer in Chinese-style modernization. It is necessary to accelerate the all-round development of smart ports, smart waterways, smart ships, smart shipping services and other fields, and improve the level of all elements, the entire chain, digitalization and intelligence of shipping. It is necessary to strengthen demonstration and promotion of achievements, promote the inclusion of typical cases of shipping science and technology innovation and application into the pilot projects of a strong transportation country, and make smart navigation a trend in the industry.
The forum also released reports such as "China's Smart Port Development Achievements", which show that my country's ports have entered a new era of automated development. So far, the scale of China's automated container terminals that have been built and are under construction ranks among the top in the world. The terminals that have been built and are under construction have mastered the core key technologies of the entire chain of design and construction, equipment manufacturing, system integration and operation management, and the overall application scale and technical level are at the forefront of the world. The automation technology of terminal loading and unloading equipment and horizontal transportation equipment is becoming more and more mature, which not only enables unmanned operation of the operation links of my country's ports, but also forms a large number of core technological achievements with independent intellectual property rights, such as terminal operating systems.