The “Guoxin 101” – an innovative, automated fish-farming vessel – was launched at a China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) yard in Taizhou, a step forward in China’s goal to upgrade its aquaculture sector.
CSSC built the vessel for Qingdao Guo Xin Development Group (also known as Guoxin and Guosen), a government conglomerate that has recently gone on an investment spree in the seafood sector. The company purchased a controlling share of the aquaculture giant Baiyang and the salmon farming assets of Oriental Ocean, an aquaculture and seafood processing firm, in February 2020. And it has financed and built several infrastructure projects in Qingdao, including the city’s subway system and a number of large office and industrial properties.
The “Guoxin 101” has a gross tonnage of 3,000 tons and cost an estimated CNY 400 million (USD 60.5 million, EUR 50.9 million). It is equipped with a range of aquaculture systems and technology that will allow it to conduct breeding trials of yellow croaker, grouper, Atlantic salmon, and yellowtail, according to China’s Science and Technology Daily. It contains three tanks for fish collectively capable of producing 4,000 metric tons of fish annually, and is designed to “break through the technical bottleneck of far-reaching sea aquaculture” so Guoxin can eventually build a vessel capable of producing up to 100,000 metric tons annually. The company said it plans to launch the “Guoxin No. 1” in 2022 and eventually launch 50 similar ships with a combined 200,000 metric tons of production annually, collectively worth CNY 11 billion (USD 1.7 billion, EUR 1.4 billion). The project was first announced in November 2019.
“The ship is a big part of our goal to be a big player in the intelligent aquaculture, seedlings, and seafood processing industries,” Guoxin Deputy General Manager Zhong Shao Guang told a news program on Qingdao TV. He said automated feeding systems on the vessels, which will be docked in the Yellow Sea off the Shandong coast, are automated and incorporate "data-driven intelligent systems.”
The ship is part of Qingdao’s goal to become self-sufficient in “superior fish” said Chen Zhi Xin, deputy head of the Ocean Industry Innovation Hub, which is run by the municipal government to encourage and fund new enterprises and innovations.
