The 2024 North Bund Forum opened in Shanghai on Tuesday, bringing together 150 representatives from leading global maritime and aviation enterprises and institutions to explore the future trajectory of the industry and strengthen collaboration across the international shipping sector.
Themed "Digital, Smart, and Green: Co-creating a New Ecosystem of Global Shipping and Aviation," the three-day event sought to lay out the future plans for the shipping industry, with numerous agreements being reached.
According to the Ministry of Transport, China possesses the most extensive shipping facilities and transports the majority of commodities by sea worldwide. It also ranks among the world's top countries in terms of its total merchant fleet size.
"China's shipping industry has distinct advantages, including a large-scale market, diverse application scenarios for technologies, and a complete industrial chain. China's shipping industry aims to break down some of the institutional barriers [in global shipping] so as to further implement the transportation revolution and promote high-quality development," said Liu Wei, party branch secretary under the Chinese Ministry of Transport.
During the opening ceremony, the Ministry of Transport and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government signed a memorandum of cooperation on building a global leading International shipping center. This agreement outlines joint initiatives in port construction, elevating shipping service capabilities, promoting sustainable and intelligent development within the shipping industry, enhancing the influence of the Shanghai International Shipping Center, and fortifying collaborative organizational support to collectively establish a preeminent global international shipping hub.
Shanghai's Mayor Gong Zheng highlighted the priorities of advancing the city's standing as a major shipping hub.
"The three major directions of transformation in shipping—digital, green, and smart—reflect the general trends and opportunities of our times. We will focus on enhancing the shipping industry's capacity to mobilize global resources and perfect the integration of three types of ports: harbor, airport, and cruise port, along with a rapid transportation system. This approach aims to address weaknesses in high-end shipping services and advance the transformation of the industry towards digitalization, smart solutions, and green practices," said Gong.
According to recent data, Shanghai Port handled over 39 million containers of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first three quarters, an 8 percent year-on-year increase.
During the forum, the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission, the Hamburg Port Authority, the COSCO Shipping Lines company, and the Shanghai International Port group all signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on jointly building a green shipping corridor.
Additionally, 11 innovative results including the construction of an international aviation hub and a supply chain control tower were also announced at the forum.