The Ministry of Natural Resources announced on Sunday that China's marine economy achieved steady growth in the first half of the year, with sound momentum and sustained resilience. Preliminary calculations show that the gross ocean product reached 5.5 trillion yuan in the period, up 5.1% year on year. 

Marine resource supply expanded steadily, with offshore crude oil and natural gas output rising 3.6% and 0.6% year on year respectively, as development projects including the Kenli 10-2 Oilfield Group (Phase I) and the Wenchang 16-2 Oilfield came fully online. The Shandong Peninsula North L site, China's deepest offshore wind power project, achieved full-capacity grid connection, generating around 1.7 billion kWh annually to meet the yearly electricity demand of roughly 500,000 households. The 16 MW floating offshore wind power platform "Three Gorges Navigator" was successfully installed. Domestic output of marine aquatic products grew 4.7% year on year. Nationwide, 1,246 new sea and island use projects were approved, covering 123,000 hectares with a total investment exceeding 380 billion yuan. 

Traditional marine industries maintained a solid foundation, with new orders, completions and order backlogs for marine vessels all increasing and China retaining its leading global market share. The marine transport sector remained generally stable, with marine freight volume and turnover up 4.7% and 7.1% year on year respectively, and total maritime import and export value rising 6.9% year on year, including a 7.8% increase in exports. The marine tourism sector continued to gain steam, with marine passenger volume and passenger turnover up 4.6% and 5.4% year on year respectively. 

Emerging marine industries expanded in scale and efficiency, with the value of new orders for offshore engineering equipment surging by 121.9% year on year, accounting for over 80% of the global market. New progress was made in marine biomedicine and comprehensive seawater utilization: four original marine innovative drugs were approved to enter Phase I clinical trials, and eight departments including the Ministry of Natural Resources jointly issued the Guidelines on Accelerating High-Quality Development of Marine Pharmaceuticals and Functional Products. An international standard led by China, Marine Technology—Standard Test Methods for Performance of Reverse Osmosis and Nanofiltration Membrane Elements, was officially released. Marine information services flourished, with the launch of the "Langya" 2.0 global intelligent marine phenomena forecasting model, the Nanming Ocean large model, and the DTOEngine 2.0 marine digital twin engine. 

Production and operation of marine-related enterprises remained generally stable. A survey of over 1,500 such enterprises showed that 38% reported year-on-year revenue growth in the first half of the year, while 32.8% saw revenues remain flat; 23.8% expanded their average workforce compared to the same period last year, while 59.7% kept staffing levels unchanged. Looking ahead to the third quarter, 40.5% of respondents expressed optimism about the economic environment, while 52% held a neutral attitude. 

Source: People.cn