On June 14, the “Citizen Representatives Visit Davos” industry tour of the 2024 Summer Davos Forum made a stop in our city to explore its efforts in building a modern marine city. At Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Engineering Co., Ltd. and Dalian Comer Marine Technology Co., Ltd., the delegates not only toured the facilities where large vessels and offshore operating platforms are manufactured, but also gained an in-depth understanding of the cutting-edge marine engineering technologies that underpin these critical national assets.

A Large Ship Marine Engineering: Integrating into the Global Advanced Marine Industry System

Upon entering the main lobby of Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Engineering’s headquarters building in Dalian Bay, the first thing that catches the eye is a display of cutting-edge offshore drilling rigs and vessels—each meticulously crafted model telling a story of continuous technological breakthroughs and innovation, and embodying the relentless dedication and pioneering spirit of DSOE’s workforce in the offshore engineering and shipbuilding sectors.

As a citizen representative set to attend the 2024 Summer Davos Forum, Guo Chao, Director and Deputy General Manager of Dachuan Offshore Engineering, is immensely proud to invite fellow citizens to visit the company he serves. “Offshore engineering is a highly technology-intensive field that requires substantial capital investment,” Guo said. For many years, the company was primarily engaged in the construction of offshore drilling rigs, with large sums of construction funds typically advanced by the company itself. However, following fluctuations in international oil prices, several clients defaulted on their contracts, pushing the company to the brink of bankruptcy. Despite these challenges, the team at Dachuan Offshore Engineering refused to give up. Over nearly three years, they pioneered China’s first self-rescue restructuring among non-listed companies.

Beside the shipyard’s quay, delegates observed several vessels and offshore platforms under intensive construction. “Over there is the liquid carbon dioxide carrier we are building for a Norwegian client,” Guo Chao explained. Five years ago, Northern Lights, a Norwegian company, issued a tender for the construction of a 7,500-cubic-meter liquid carbon dioxide carrier. The close alignment of the two parties’ visions, coupled with the company’s forward-looking expertise in this specialized field, ultimately won over the Norwegian partner. As a result, Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Engineering emerged from among more than 50 shipyards worldwide to become one of the first global contractors to build such vessels. In their view, by leveraging Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Engineering’s industrial strengths, Dalian’s status as a leading maritime city, and its strategic location in the Bohai Bay, the company can contribute Dalian’s expertise and offer Dalian-based solutions to advance China’s dual-carbon initiatives and help achieve global carbon neutrality goals.

B. Kommer:

The “Unseen Hero” of Corrosion Protection in Marine Engineering

Dalian Comair Marine Technology Co., Ltd., located in the Dalian Overseas Students Entrepreneurship Park in Liaoning Province, is a specialized provider of health and safety management services deeply rooted in the shipbuilding and offshore engineering sectors.

Many Dalian residents may not be aware that, in China’s shipbuilding and offshore engineering health and safety management sector, this is a truly “top-tier” company. Addressing the industry’s pressing challenges in corrosion protection and safety, the company has independently developed a range of innovative products, with its tensioned impressed-current cathodic protection system and digital twin structural health monitoring system standing out as two flagship product lines. These solutions have effectively resolved long-standing pain points in the industry and make the company the only domestic provider to date offering complete, turnkey solutions and integrated product suites for offshore platforms. Notably, the tensioned impressed-current cathodic protection system was successfully deployed in 2017 as China’s first such system, breaking the bottleneck in extending the service life of offshore platforms through corrosion protection; it was subsequently evaluated by an expert panel led by two academicians and found to be at an internationally leading level. In March 2023, the digital twin structural health monitoring system was successfully implemented for the first time on the “Haiji No. 1” platform, marking a global pioneering achievement. By 2024, the same system had been integrated into the “Haiji No. 2” platform—the deepest-water installation in Asia and the seventh deepest in the world—enabling real-time monitoring, assessment and early warning, data inversion, digital twinning, end-to-end data traceability, and AI-driven operational support, among other smart, digital applications. This has helped create China’s first “intelligent jacket platform,” garnering widespread industry attention and extensive coverage from CCTV and other media outlets.

At the conference, delegates heard the story of a “hidden champion” in China’s marine engineering corrosion protection industry. In 2010, an offshore platform in China experienced anomalies in its corrosion protection system that relied on two sets supplied by a leading global company based in the United States. The system failed again in 2015 under the onslaught of a severe typhoon, leaving the platform in urgent need of life-extension measures. In 2017, Comair, in collaboration with Dalian University of Technology and other institutions, successfully developed and commissioned China’s first tensioned impressed-current cathodic protection system, thereby overcoming significant technical challenges. Today, the complete suite of equipment provided by Comair has been operating reliably for more than seven years, having withstood over a dozen severe typhoons. Its performance far surpasses that of imported foreign products and has effectively driven those competitors out of the Chinese market, establishing Comair as the premier solution for corrosion protection on deepwater jacket platforms.

C stands for sound:

Dalian Offshore Engineering Technology

Shocking

“In the past, when I thought of equipment corrosion protection, my first instinct was to think of anti-corrosion paints. I never imagined that our offshore engineering corrosion protection could be so advanced—let alone reach such a high standard!” Bao Weiyang, a citizen representative and scholar specializing in marine biotechnology research and development, described his reaction as “shocking” upon learning about KOMAR’s scientific achievements in applying electrochemical corrosion-control principles to the manufacturing and operation of offshore engineering projects. At the same time, he was deeply moved by Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Engineering’s series of technological advancements and market explorations. “A single day of visits has truly made me realize several key words that define Dalian’s maritime culture: openness, inclusiveness, and innovation,” said Bao Weiyang. “These are gifts from the sea to the people of Dalian.” As a citizen representative, he is eager to bring this spirit of Dalian’s maritime culture—along with the voices and cutting-edge technologies of Dalian’s marine industry—to Davos.

Citizen representatives stated that they will strive to build a bridge for Dalian’s marine enterprises to connect with the global community, thereby jointly promoting the sustainable development of Dalian’s marine industry.

(Text by Sun Xia, reporter for the Dalian News Media Group; photos by Gao Qiang, reporter for the Dalian News Media Group)