The province of Shandong in East China has been focusing heavily on the construction of world-class sea ports, a strong modern maritime industry system, and a green and sustainable marine environment in an effort to become a maritime powerhouse, according to local officials.

Cargo ships are seen in Qingdao Port, East China's Shandong province, on Oct 19, 2018. [Photo/VCG]

Shandong has listed the modern marine industry as one of its top 10 modern competitive industrial clusters. It has set up specialized work groups to cultivate a competitive shipbuilding cluster in Qingdao, a strong offshore engineering cluster in Yantai, and a prepotent power equipment industry in Weifang.

The province has also been promoting the construction of State-level marine ranch demonstration zones.

"As an emerging strategic industry in the province's blue economy, the scale of local marine engineering equipment manufacturing is approaching 100 billion yuan ($15.36 billion)," said Zhang Jiandong, a local official.

According to Zhang, the output value of the marine biomedicine industry in Shandong is more than 20 billion yuan, accounting for about half of the country's total. By the end of 2019, Shandong's marine fishery industry, marine biological medicine industry, marine salt industry, marine power industry, and marine transportation industry all ranked first in China in terms of scale.

Workers harvest fish at the Genghai No 1 marine ranch complex in Yantai, Shandong province on Oct 30, 2020. [Photo/VCG]

Marine ranches are becoming a comprehensive new carrier for the development of modern fisheries. The number of State-level marine ranch demonstration zones in Shandong accounts for 40 percent of the country's total, ranking first in the nation.

Shandong Port Group, which has integrated all major ports in the province, including Qingdao Port, Yantai Port, Rizhao Port, and the Bohai Bay Port Group, has been playing a bigger role in the Belt and Road Initiative and expanding its operations into the country's inland areas.

In 2020, the cargo throughput of Shandong Port Group exceeded 1.4 billion tons, ranking first in the world, while container throughput hit 30 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).