Shanghai trial for homegrown ship navigation system

Shanghai's maritime authority is to hold experiments this year on introducing China's Beidou system to ship navigation at Yangshan Deep Water Port, officials said today.

This is a joint project by the Shanghai Maritime Bureau, Shanghai SIPG Group and Shanghai Maritime University.

They have been working on introducing the Beidou CORS system since last year.

Additional investment has been promised this year for navigation trials, said officials.

According to the maritime bureau, Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port has to suspend operations for large ships on 45 days every year on average due to poor visibility caused by fog and smog.

This leads to around 1.65 billion yuan (US$256 million) in losses to shipping companies.