Known as a weather vane for the development trend of international maritime industry technology, the 2023 International Maritime Exhibition, the most influential and large-scale maritime professional exhibition in the world this year, will be held in Shanghai from December 5th to 8th this year. This is the first exhibition of the International Maritime Exhibition to open a new chapter in the next 40 years. While building a bridge and platform for comprehensive and multi-level communication and cooperation for the international maritime community, It also points out the direction for the future development of the international maritime industry.

The International Maritime Exhibition was founded at the beginning of the reform and opening up, and is held in Shanghai at the end of each year. It has been successfully held for 20 times so far. After more than 40 years of development, the International Maritime Exhibition has become one of the two largest and most influential maritime exhibitions in the world. Due to the impact of the epidemic, the current International Maritime Exhibition, which has been held offline again after four years, has high hopes for the global maritime industry and hopes to establish and strengthen cooperation with Chinese and Asian clients by participating in this exhibition.
In the past two years, with the stable recovery of global maritime trade, the global new shipbuilding market has shown a continuous positive trend, and new ship orders have steadily increased. According to the latest statistical data from the China Shipbuilding Industry Association, from January to August 2023, the global new ship order volume was 75.99 million deadweight tons, a year-on-year increase of 37%. As of the end of August, the world’s order volume for handheld ships reached 244.08 million deadweight tons, a year-on-year increase of 14%. While the number of new ship orders has increased, the prices of new ships have continued to rise. In August 2023, the Clarkson New Ship Price Index was 173.55 points, a month on month increase of 0.7% and a year-on-year increase of 7.1%. At the same time, China’s shipbuilding industry has seized opportunities and maintained a global lead in international market share. According to statistics from the China Shipbuilding Industry Association, from January to August this year, China’s shipbuilding completion volume, new orders received, and handheld orders accounted for 49.0%, 68.8%, and 53.9% of the world market share in deadweight tons, respectively, ranking first in the world.
This provides good market conditions for the smooth hosting of this maritime exhibition.
In this context, the Organizing Committee of the International Maritime Convention and Exhibition actively adjusted various preparations. After determining that the new exhibition will be held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center from December 5-8, 2023, the enthusiasm of industry enterprises to participate in the exhibition has greatly increased. The original plan for this exhibition was to rent the W2~W5 and N1~N3 pavilions. As of early August, the number of queuing enterprises has far exceeded the pre rented exhibition capacity. In order to meet the strong desire of the majority of enterprises to participate, after discussion between the domestic and foreign organizers of the exhibition, it has been decided to launch a new exhibition hall W1. At the same time, it is planned to use the South Entrance Hall as the secondary entrance of this exhibition to facilitate visitors to enter and visit.
N Pavilion is an overseas exhibition area with three pavilions in total. As of August 20th, companies from 30 countries and regions have confirmed their participation, including 15 country/region pavilions. The German pavilion remains the largest overseas exhibition group, followed closely by the Danish and Norwegian pavilions. Global industry giants such as Mann, Wartsila, ABB, Siemens, Konsberg, Rolls Royce, McKinsey, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Changshi, and Ultan continue to make appearances at this exhibition.
Hall W is a domestic exhibition area. From the perspective of regional distribution, in addition to enterprises from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, there are a total of 24 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government participating in the exhibition. With the continuous advancement of the industry towards decarbonization and digital intelligence, many of the participating companies this year come from the fields of new energy and intelligent ships. Based on the current overall sales data, the overall scale of this exhibition is expected to reach its highest level in history. Many key exhibitors have expressed plans to release important new products at this exhibition, and senior executives will also visit Shanghai. Major industry organizations and embassies and consulates in China are also planning business activities for the same period. This exhibition is expected to become the most important maritime exhibition in Asia and even the world in the past four years.
In the past two years, the pace of decarbonization in the global maritime industry has been accelerating, and “low-carbon” has become a hot topic in the maritime industry. It is reported that multiple dual fuel ship types, dual fuel engines, fuel cells, new energy batteries, marine LNG supply systems (FGSS), desulfurization devices, and many other green and environmentally friendly products and technologies will appear at this exhibition. With the continuous advancement of digitization and intelligence, the field of unmanned ships will also be one of the noteworthy display contents of this exhibition.
The Marintec Cruise themed exhibition, founded in 2017, will continue to launch the “Cruise Interior Exhibition Area” this year. With the support of the China Association of Tourism Vehicles and Boats Cruise Yacht Branch, the overall number and level of participating enterprises will be further increased. In addition to key overseas interior decoration enterprises, it will focus on showcasing China’s continuously developing interior supply chain enterprises in recent years. The exhibition area will continue to build a cruise experience area, including kitchen area, dining area, deck area, theater, reception area, cabin, suite, and check-in area. Some functional areas in the experience area will be provided for exhibitors to hold various activities, with the theater serving as a forum area open to important enterprises and boutique activities. The various exciting activities held daily will further highlight the characteristics of this exhibition.
The Advanced Maritime Forum, held concurrently with the exhibition, this year’s theme is “Innovation, Wisdom, and Low Carbon”, adhering to innovation and in line with the current development progress of the “decarbonization” plan for the maritime industry. This forum will be held from December 4th to 7th at the Kerry Hotel in Pudong, Shanghai, adjacent to the exhibition hall. The advanced maritime forum will continue to maintain a 5+1 format in terms of venue settings. Five of them are fixed events, including “Theme Report”, “Ships and Marine Engineering”, “Shipping and Ports”, “Maritime Finance and Law”, “Supporting Equipment Technology”, and a special “Cruise” event. Among them, the “Theme Report” special session, the “Shipping and Port” special session, and the “Supporting Equipment Technology” special session all focus on “low-carbon”, inviting industry authoritative experts, shipbuilding enterprises, supporting enterprises, research institutes, and other relevant parties to introduce the latest development trends, innovative technologies, and equipment in green, energy-saving, and low-carbon environmental protection of the marine industry; The “Ship and Marine Engineering” special session aims at innovative design, intelligent manufacturing, and looks forward to the future development trend of intelligent ships; The “Maritime Finance and Law Special Session” invited authoritative figures from various fields such as financial institutions, legal institutions, exchanges, and higher education institutions to analyze in detail the current ship financing environment faced by the maritime industry and how to respond to legal disputes.
This year’s exhibition will feature “Cruise” as a special theme, and the Advanced Maritime Forum will also launch a special venue – Cruise Branch. Although the global cruise related industry is rapidly recovering, it still faces many uncertain factors in the future due to the sluggish global economy and complex geopolitical influences. In this context, the exhibition organizing committee specially invited experts from relevant parties in the cruise industry chain to express their insightful opinions on construction, design, operation, and supporting areas.
It is reported that most of the speakers at the Senior Maritime Forum have been confirmed, including:
Mr. Roberto Kazulo, Elected Chairman of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS)
Mr. Guy Praten, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS)
Mr. Stephen Gordon, President of Clarkson Research Center
Dr. Martin Stove, a renowned shipping economist
Academician Huang Zhen from Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Mr. John McDonald, President of ABS
Mr. Ian Gunter, former chairman of the London Maritime Arbitrators Association, and other globally renowned experts.
In addition to the high-level maritime forum, during the exhibition period, relevant maritime organizations and enterprises will also spontaneously organize various forums, technical exchange meetings, product launches, signing ceremonies, and award ceremonies, with hundreds of events. In particular, the Pudong New Area government will take the lead in hosting the first “Pudong Shipping Week”. The six day event will include high-end seminars, business docking, new product releases, cultural and sports events, etc., focusing on creating a big party for shipping culture.
At the same time, this exhibition will further increase its efforts in “informatization”. At present, the pre registration system has been officially launched, and the WeChat mini program and exhibition app are planned to be launched in November. The online exhibitor information declaration system will also continue to play an important role.
The organizing committee will successively send invitations to relevant industry organizations, government departments, universities, and enterprises and institutions, encouraging relevant units to visit in groups. At the same time, the organizing committee will continue to organize nearly 200 professional visiting groups and develop exclusive visiting routes for face-to-face visits.
Overall, for China’s shipbuilding and marine equipment industry, as well as shipping service industry, this exhibition will be an excellent opportunity to showcase comprehensive strength, strengthen international cooperation, and enhance international image. It will play a very positive role in promoting trade exchanges and technological progress. With the optimization of epidemic prevention and control policies and the continuous progress of technology in maritime related industries, the 2023 International Maritime Exhibition will be a highly anticipated industry event.