Healthy waters

Green moves

While high-tech is the focus of the country's blue economy development, policymakers and analysts are also paying more attention to ecological protection.

Nearly 800 km to the south of Qing-dao, Jinshan in southern Shanghai is also working hard to make better use of its 23.3-km-long coastal line.

The district, called China's best "deep-sea port" by revolutionary leader Sun Yat-Sen, had in the last few years become a major center for the chemical industry in East China due to its proximity to the sea.

Despite the contributions made by the district to China's rapid economic growth over the past decade, Chen Xin'an, senior economist and member of Shanghai Jinshan New Town Management Committee, says it hopes to take a more eco-friendly path of progress.

The district wants to be a major tourist destination in Shanghai, or in other words to be a major coastal city without an attractive beach yet.

"Look at the chemical industry towns in Germany. They still offer a great living environment for their citizens. We want to be the same," Chen says.

While high-tech and environmentally friendly marine industries are finding the right momentum for growth, companies involved in the traditional marine industries are changing their strategies to survive.

Song Zhengyong, deputy production manager of Huanghai Shipbuilding Co in Shandong, says his company now has more domestic orders.

"More than 80 percent of our cargo orders used to come from abroad. This is changing and we are slowly increasing our domestic business," Song says, adding that sales reached 3 billion yuan in 2011.

China aims to increase annual sales by domestic shipbuilders to 1.2 trillion yuan by 2015 as it works toward its goal of becoming the world's leading shipbuilding nation, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said last year.

The country also plans to raise the value of annual shipbuilding exports to more than $80 billion (61 billion euros) by 2015, the ministry said in a five-year plan for the shipbuilding industry.

The plan provides new details regarding China's push for significant growth in domestic shipbuilding at a time when the industry already faces overcapacity.

A report by the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry showed that total new orders from more than 1,500 shipbuilders in China fell more than 50 percent in 2011.

To achieve these goals, the shipbuilding industry is focusing on quality over productivity and overcoming deficiencies, including worker training, retention and research and design.

"For many companies, productivity came first and quality a little bit later. But for the major shipyards, quality has remained a major part of their program and we've often seen them take huge strides," says Tom Boardley, marine director of the London-based Lloyd's Register, which provides ship classification services globally.

The company is the world's second-largest classification society and covers more than 18 percent of the global fleet. It employs 372 people in China and has a working presence in 40 of the country's 200 main yards.

The changing focus of the shipbuilding industry has also created more opportunities for overseas companies.

Autodesk, a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software in the US, says that it expects more opportunities in China's developing marine economy, "particularly in the shipbuilding industry".

Autodesk reached a deal in November with Sanyang Heavy Machinery Co, producer of shipping equipment in Taizhou, a city in the coastal Jiangsu province of East China, to allow the latter to use Autodesk Inventor software in making engineering ships and equipment.

The Autodesk Inventor 3D model is an accurate 3D digital prototype that enables users to validate the form, fit, and function of a design; minimize the need for physical prototypes; and reduce costly engineering changes that are discovered only after the design is sent for manufacturing.

"Autodesk hopes to have more technology exchanges and cooperation with Chinese companies and make more contributions in line with China's plans to be a major maritime power," a company official said on condition of anonymity.