China becoming a leader in autonomous shipping by 2025
According to new research published, it is predicted that China will be leading the $1bn autonomous shipping market by 2025.
The technology research and innovation consultancy Thetius published a new report on the 16th of April 2020, that predicts the People’s Republic of China taking the lead in the autonomous shipping market by 2025. About 3000 patents relating to autonomous shipping technology were carefully analyzed by researchers, and they found that 96% of them were registered in China. In recent years, the majority of those patents were registered by a small group of Chinese universities and private companies.
The Director of Thetius, Nick Chubb, said:
“The incredible amount of recent patent activity indicates that significant R&D funding has been made available to Chinese researchers building the next generation of autonomous shipping technology,” Adding that,
”Further, the government is highly supportive of the sector, having recently set up a 300 square mile autonomous shipping testbed in Guangdong.”
For the Chinese –already taking up a great percentage in the market already-, this would be an outstanding achievement, that would further strengthen their economy, create new business partners while they maintain their stand as a world leader in innovative technology.
The Thetius report also examines venture capital investment trends in the sector, maps out the more than 50 SMEs, startups, and large corporations building autonomous and unmanned shipping technology; and also highlights some of the early key adopters in the industry.
The report also offered insight on critical issues such as:
- The worth of the maritime autonomous surface shipping (MASS) market is $1.1bn annually. It is expected to grow 7% per year, reaching $1.5bn by 2025.
- Since 2010, $113 million of venture capital has been invested in MASS technology.
- Having received $88.5 million over four rounds, California-based Salidrone is the best-funded MASS Startup.