Chinese State Shipbuilding Group Announces Truly Smart Bulk Freight Carrier

CHINA - CSSC Offshore & Marine Engineering (Group) (COMEC), the shipbuilding group formerly known as Guangzhou Shipyard International, has sponsored an event this week which revealed what the company is claiming will be the world’s first ever truly ‘smart ship’. The somewhat clumsily named ‘Smart Ship Development Forum & Smart Ship Demo’ saw the state owned, yet Hong Kong stock exchange listed company, present details of the forthcoming 38,800 dwt bulk freight carrier.

A collaboration in the first civilian programme in the ‘CSSC Innovation Plan’ led by the Shanghai Ship Design and Research Institute (SDARI), and undertaken by CSSC Huangpu-Wenchong Shipbuilding (HPWS), the CSSC Power Research Institute and Hudong Heavy Machinery Company, will see building start in September 2016 with completion some time in 2017.

The China State Shipbulding Corporation (CSSC) is of course a complex outfit and the list of in house technologies which it can draw on, and include in the vessel’s production is lengthy, to say the least. The ship’s key ‘smart’ functions will include:

Overall ship performance and status monitoring; ship safety assessment, energy efficiency monitoring and analysis, assessment and optimization; engine room equipment and system operation status monitoring, safety and performance analysis; engine room equipment maintenance; sea route planning based on hydrological and meteorological information; ship navigational safety assessment, navigational operation and information analysis; environmental impact analysis; navigational decision-making optimization, operation and control optimization.

Photo: CSSC have a pedigree for producing tankers of various types on this scale.