Marine Economy Becomes New Growth Engine as Listed Companies Compete in Deep Blue Track

The ocean economy has become a new engine for global development and a new track for competition. Driven by the national strategy to strengthen maritime power and related policies, the ocean economy continues to release new blue momentum, attracting various enterprises to actively participate.

Cultivating and Expanding Emerging Marine Industries

In recent years, China’s foundation for building a strong maritime nation has become more solid and substantial. The Ministry of Natural Resources released the “2025 China Marine Economy Statistical Bulletin” (hereinafter referred to as the “Bulletin”), which shows that preliminary estimates indicate that by 2025, the total marine gross domestic product (GDP) will exceed 11 trillion yuan, a 5.5% increase over 2024, accounting for 7.9% of the national GDP.

Among these, the rapid growth of emerging marine industries is particularly impressive. The Bulletin states that the marine engineering equipment manufacturing industry is accelerating its recovery, with added value increasing by 10.2% compared to the previous year; the offshore wind power market continues to expand, with new grid-connected capacity in 2025 growing by over 60% compared to 2024.

Regarding the goal of “strengthening, optimizing, and expanding the marine industry” as proposed in the 2026 government work report, Professor Han Zhen from the College of Marine Science and Ecological Environment at Shanghai Ocean University and Director of the Shanghai Estuarine Marine Surveying and Mapping Engineering Technology Research Center told Shanghai Securities News that there are three key breakthroughs in building a modern marine industry system:

1. Break through core technology and equipment bottlenecks. Focus on key areas such as marine energy development technology and equipment, high-end marine observation sensors, to achieve localization of critical technologies and equipment, enhancing industry independence and controllability.

2. Create advantages in industrial chain collaboration and cluster development. Rely on regions with strong industrial bases such as the Bohai Rim, Yangtze River Delta, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, integrate upstream and downstream resources, and cultivate marine engineering equipment and marine energy industry clusters.

3. Strengthen the foundation of marine digital infrastructure. Accelerate the construction of an integrated “air–space–sea–shore” three-dimensional observation network and build a unified, open marine data sharing platform.

Developing Marine Economy According to Local Conditions

Coastal provinces such as Shanghai, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Hainan are actively promoting marine economic development tailored to local conditions.

As the first comprehensive regulation issued by Zhejiang in the marine economy field, the “Regulations on Promoting High-Quality Development of Zhejiang Marine Economy,” effective from March 1, 2026, mention promoting large-scale development of industries such as clean marine energy, seawater desalination, new marine materials, marine biomedicine, and marine electronic information.

The “Guangdong Province Action Plan for Promoting High-Quality Marine Economy Development (2025–2027)” clearly states that Guangdong will implement initiatives such as marine science and technology leadership, acceleration of marine industry, cultivation of marine economic platform entities, and support measures to accelerate high-quality marine economic development.

Shanghai also leverages its own advantages and plans ahead for the future of marine industries. The “Shanghai Marine Industry Development Plan (2026–2035)” proposes exploring multidisciplinary integration and innovation in marine science, biological engineering, life sciences, materials science, and energy engineering, relying on core strengths in deep-sea exploration, deep drilling, deep-sea networks, and polar regions.

Han Zhen believes that to achieve large-scale, high-quality development of emerging marine industries, it is necessary to take technological innovation as the core engine, strengthen infrastructure and supply chain foundations, accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and build an innovation consortium centered on enterprises, market-oriented, with deep integration of industry, academia, research, and application, thereby forming large-scale industrial clusters.

In addition to favorable policies, many projects are taking root. In Hainan, major projects such as the National Marine Comprehensive Test Field (Deep Sea) are driving high-end deep-sea equipment manufacturing enterprises to establish production in Yacheng Bay, Sanya. Currently, Sanya Yacheng Bay Science and Technology City has gathered over 1,200 marine technology companies, initially forming a deep-sea equipment industry cluster.

Public Companies Deploy Deep-Sea Technology

Deep-sea technology focuses on “Three Deeps” (deep diving, deep drilling, deep networks), with exploration and development of the deep sea advancing steadily.

According to the Huibo Intelligent Investment Research Platform report, “deep diving” refers to using transport tools to directly operate in the deep sea; “deep drilling” involves drilling from the seabed downward to obtain samples for research; “deep networks” are detection networks deployed on the seabed composed of optical cables, sensors, and other equipment.

Guojin Securities research reports indicate that China’s marine engineering equipment industry has a high concentration, with market share mainly held by leading companies such as China State Shipbuilding Corporation, Zhenhua Heavy Industries, and CIMC Group.

In the field of deep-sea oil and gas development, related listed companies continue to make efforts. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced that its “Deep Sea No. 1” gas field phase two project in the South China Sea has been fully commissioned, marking the completion of China’s largest offshore gas field. Sinopec Oilfield Service focuses on national deep-sea and distant-water oil and gas exploration and development, steadily expanding the offshore oil service market to support high-quality development of China’s deep-sea oil and gas industry.

Hengtong Optic-Electric continues to win bids for offshore wind and marine oil and gas projects domestically and internationally, demonstrating its competitiveness in marine energy. A relevant executive from Hengtong told Shanghai Securities News that the company will seize important opportunities in marine economic development, establishing core products such as submarine communication, observation, submarine cables, and equipment in Hainan, with a considerable market potential.

“We will cultivate and expand the company’s new marine economy business,” the executive said. “In the future, the company may establish a submarine cable manufacturing, integration, and maintenance base in Hainan and promote related marine equipment industries.”

Some companies are optimistic about the future development space of deep-sea operation equipment. Times Electric states that its current focus is on deep-sea operation robots and subsea communication cable laying robots needed for oil and gas development. Although these fields are small in scale, they show a stable growth trend.

How to strengthen support for marine strategic scientific and technological power? Han Zhen believes that it should be guided by major national needs, leverage major national science and technology projects to break through key technologies, strengthen the construction of industry-university-research integration platforms, and increase investment in marine science and technology R&D. Given the scarcity of interdisciplinary high-end marine talents, it is also necessary to optimize the marine talent ecosystem, improve innovation systems and policies, and ensure policy support.