The International Smart Shipping Alliance (ISSA) has been officially established in Shanghai, launching with an initial membership of nine, as the global shipping industry moves to integrate intelligent technologies.

The Shanghai Marine Equipment Research Institute of China State Shipbuilding Corp Ltd (CSSC) is the only ship research institute among the founding members, a role that highlights the growing influence of China's ship research capabilities. CSSC is China's largest shipbuilding group.

The alliance was jointly initiated by Shanghai Maritime University and the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), with its secretariat based at Shanghai Maritime University, placing the new body's day-to-day administration in Shanghai. Headquartered in Denmark, BIMCO is one of the world's largest international shipping associations, representing shipowners, ship managers, brokers and agents across the maritime sector. Its co-initiation gives the alliance a direct link to that international shipowner and broker base from the outset.

The ISSA is a non-profit international industry alliance that brings together participants across the entire industrial chain, including technology, ships, regulations, operations and applications. It is guided by the principles of safety, compliance, openness, collaboration and sustainability.

The establishment of the alliance comes as ports, shipowners and regulators worldwide increasingly adopt automation, digitalization and data-driven tools to improve the efficiency and safety of maritime transport — a transition that touches ship technology, regulation and operations simultaneously, the same ground the ISSA's full-chain membership is designed to cover.

The launch also aligns with China's national push in this field. An action plan on intelligent shipping was jointly issued by four Chinese government departments, including the Ministry of Transport, targeting more than five trial shipping routes, over 10 typical application scenarios and more than 100 intelligent ships by 2030. Those dated targets give the sector concrete checkpoints for tracking how the intelligent-shipping build-out progresses through the end of the decade.

Shanghai is home to one of the world's busiest container ports and hosts a concentration of shipping companies, maritime universities and research institutes, making it a natural base for initiatives aimed at advancing smart shipping.

Source: China Daily, via Hellenic Shipping News.