July 11th is the 20th "China Maritime Day" with the theme of "Smart Navigation for a Better Future". On that day, the main forum of the 2024 China Maritime Day Forum and the launch ceremony of the National Maritime Day Activity Week were held in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin. On the main forum, the 2023 China Shipping Development Report and the achievements of China's smart port development were released.

The 2023 China Shipping Development Report points out that by 2023, China's international shipping volume will have reached nearly one-third of the global shipping volume. The throughput of ship locks such as the Three Gorges Dam, Xijiang Changzhou Port, and the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal will reach new highs, and the guarantee capacity and level of key materials and international container transportation services will be further improved; The investment in water transportation construction has reached 2015.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.1%. A number of major projects have accelerated progress, and the container terminal project in Xiaoyangshan North Operation Area has started construction in both water and land areas. The Pinglu Canal project has also started construction on the entire line; The national port container intermodal transportation volume reached 10.18 million TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%.

The report shows that a number of domestic boutique tourism passenger routes have various highlights, and international cruise transportation has resumed operations comprehensively; The scale of the maritime fleet remains at the forefront of the world, and significant breakthroughs have been made in the design and construction of domestically produced LNG carriers and cruise ships; The national electronic waterway map covers over 5700 kilometers of waterway mileage, and the electronic waterway map of the Yangtze River trunk line has achieved full coverage; The application of electronic release platforms for imported shipping containers and bulk cargo is constantly expanding; China has been elected as a Class A member of the International Maritime Organization for 18 consecutive times. The influence of China Maritime Day and the North Bund International Shipping Forum is increasing, and a number of shipping opening-up and innovation policies in Hainan Free Trade Port have taken effect; The world's first shipping futures product developed based on China's index has been successfully launched, and the construction of Shanghai International Shipping Center has reached a new level.

The development achievements of China's smart ports show that Chinese ports have entered a new era of automation development. As of now, the scale of automated container terminals built and under construction in China ranks among the top in the world, mastering the core key technologies of design and construction, equipment manufacturing, system integration, and operation management throughout the entire chain. The overall application scale and technical level are at the forefront of the international community. The technical standards for the construction of automated terminals in China have gone abroad, and automated terminals such as the Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, have adopted Chinese technical standards in terms of overall layout, loading and unloading process equipment, and other aspects.