China's maritime search and rescue industry from 2025 to 2030: International cooperation and opportunities for the "Belt and Road"

Preface

With the rapid development of the global marine economy and the deepening of the "Belt and Road" initiative, China's maritime search and rescue industry is ushering in a period of strategic opportunity. As the core link in ensuring maritime security, maritime search and rescue not only concerns the safety of human life and property protection, but also has become an important manifestation of the country's marine governance capabilities. In recent years, policy support has continued to increase, technological iteration has accelerated breakthroughs, and market demand has diversified expansion, promoting the industry to evolve towards intelligence and internationalization.

1. Analysis of the current status of industry development

(1) Policy-driven and technology empowerment go hand in hand

China's maritime search and rescue system is based on the "International Maritime Search and Rescue Convention" and the "Maritime Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of China" as the legal framework. Relying on the coordinated linkage of more than 20 departments including the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Emergency Management, to form a three-level rescue network of "national team local team social forces". At the policy level, the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of the National Maritime Search and Rescue System" clearly put forward the goal of "all-sea area coverage, all-weather operation, and rapid response". The national special fund investment increased significantly year-on-year in 2024, and focused on supporting the research and development of intelligent equipment and the construction of regional rescue bases. At the technical level, the coverage rate of Beidou navigation and AIS systems has continued to increase. Intelligent unmanned boats and drones have successfully narrowed the search and rescue scope in a search and rescue operation in the South China Sea in 2024, and the response efficiency has been greatly improved.

(II) Diversification and specialization of market entities coexist

According to the "2025-2030 China Maritime Search and Rescue Industry Investment Value Analysis and Development Trend Forecast Report" of China Research Institute, the current industry is showing a pattern of "national team leading, local team supplementation, and private capital accelerated entry". The national team takes the Ministry of Transport's Rescue and Salvation Bureau as the core and undertakes the task of rescue operations in oceans and major accidents; the local team relies on 11 provincial search and rescue centers to focus on offshore and inland river areas; private capital enters the segmented market through technological innovation, and the number of new enterprises increased significantly year-on-year in 2024, and its business covers equipment leasing, training and consultation and other fields. In addition, technology companies such as Huawei and ZTE have empowered technologies such as 5G communications and AI algorithms to promote the industry to transform into digital and intelligent.

(III) Regional development imbalance and emerging demand emergence

The coastal economic belts are still the core market of the industry. The Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions occupy a large market share in the country due to dense ports and large ship flow. However, emerging regions such as Hainan Free Trade Port and Guangxi Beibu Gulf have led the country in terms of investment growth due to policy dividends and the rise of marine economy. In terms of demand structure, the proportion of traditional ships in distress rescue is still relatively high, but emerging industries such as offshore wind power and deep-sea oil and gas development have created professional rescue demand. For example, a certain offshore wind power project has greatly shortened the accident response time through customized rescue plans.

2. Environmental analysis

(I) Policy environment: Top-level design strengthens industry norms

The national level continues to improve the legal and regulatory system. The "Marine Search and Rescue Regulations" revised in 2024 further clarifies the cross-departmental coordination mechanism and division of responsibilities, and at the same time introduces a reward policy for social forces to participate in to stimulate the enthusiasm of private rescue organizations. At the local level, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places have passed legislation to strengthen the configuration standards for rescue equipment. For example, a certain city requires ocean ships to forcefully carry intelligent life-saving equipment to promote the standardized development of the industry.

(II) Economic environment: The rise of the marine economy drives demand growth

China's marine economy continues to expand, and it is expected to break through a certain scale in 2025, driving the vigorous development of industries such as shipping, fishery, and tourism. In the marine transportation industry, port throughput has increased significantly, and the number of merchant ships has increased, which has directly pushed up the demand for search and rescue services; in the marine tourism industry, the cruise economy and island tourism have emerged, and the rate of accidents of leisure ships has increased, prompting local governments to increase their investment in rescue. In addition, the increase in installed capacity of offshore wind power puts forward higher requirements for the safety guarantee of deep-sea operations.

(III) Social environment: Improvement of public safety awareness and deepening of technical awareness

In recent years, major shipwreck accidents have attracted widespread attention from the society, and the public's expectations for rescue efficiency and professionalism have significantly improved. At the same time, the popularization of technology has increased the acceptance of intelligent rescue equipment. For example, a certain brand of smart life jackets is spread through social media, and the sales volume of a single month exceeds 10,000 pieces. In addition, the popularization of global search and rescue standards promoted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has prompted China to accelerate its connection with international rules and enhance the industry's international competitiveness.

3. Supply and demand analysis

(I) Demand side: Diversified scenarios create incremental markets

The demand structure is extending from a single rescue to the full chain of "prevention-rescue-recovery". In traditional demand, personnel injuries and ship damage are at a high proportion, but emerging demand grows faster:

Energy development field: Deep-sea oil and gas platforms need to be equipped with high-pressure environmental rescue equipment. The pressure-resistant ROV (remote-controlled submersible) developed by a certain enterprise has been used in the South China Sea project;

Environmental emergency field: demand for oil spill cleaning, nuclear pollution disposal and other businesses has increased. An environmental protection company has greatly improved the oil spill positioning efficiency by introducing a drone monitoring system;

Commercial insurance field: Insurance companies cooperate with rescue agencies to launch "rescue insurance" products. For example, a platform can achieve customer renewal rate growth through bundled services.

(II) Supply side: technological breakthroughs and capacity upgrades parallel

In the upstream equipment manufacturing process, the domestic production rate continues to increase. The domestic high-power rescue ship developed by a certain enterprise has been delivered in batches, breaking foreign monopoly; in the midstream service operation process, leading enterprises form a closed loop by integrating resources, such as a platform integrating ship dynamics, meteorological data and rescue forces to achieve cross-regional coordinated scheduling; in the downstream application process, the training market has expanded rapidly, and an institution has jointly opened a maritime rescue major with universities, and the number of professional talents has been trained annually.

(III) The supply and demand gap coexist with regional imbalance

Although the overall supply capacity of the industry has been enhanced, there are still gaps in high-end equipment and professional talents. For example, deep-sea rescue equipment relies on imports, and a certain model of underwater robot has a low domestic market share; the rescue coverage in the western inland river areas is insufficient, and a province has a long response time for rescue in remote waters due to equipment aging. In addition, the problem of disconnection between emergency plans and practical drills is prominent. In a simulation drill, cross-departmental coordination efficiency was low, exposing the shortcomings in systematic construction.

4. Analysis of industry development trends

(I) Technology Trends: Intelligence and Greening lead the transformation

In the next five years, AI, big data, blockchain and other technologies will be deeply integrated into the search and rescue system:

Intelligent prediction: AI models based on historical data and real-time meteorology can warning of accident risks in advance. For example, a system successfully predicts a stranded accident by analyzing ocean currents and ship trajectory;

Unmanned operations: UAVs and unmanned ships will undertake high-risk environmental reconnaissance tasks, and the hydrogen-powered unmanned boat developed by a certain enterprise has achieved long-term endurance;

Green rescue: The proportion of solar drones and low-carbon rescue bases has increased, and a project has reduced carbon emissions through photovoltaic power supply systems.

(II) Market trends: international cooperation and deep cultivation of market segmentation

With the deepening of maritime cooperation on the "Belt and Road", China will strengthen rescue cooperation with Southeast Asia, Africa and other regions. For example, in a cross-border joint drill, China provides technical support to improve regional coordination capabilities. In terms of market segments, emerging fields such as high-end tourism rescue and deep-sea archaeological support will become the focus of competition. A certain company has launched customized rescue plans for polar expedition ships.

(III) Policy Trends: Standardization Construction and Market-oriented Reform Promotion

The national plan to issue industry standards, covering equipment performance, service processes, personnel qualifications and other fields. At the same time, social capital is encouraged to participate in the construction and operation of rescue bases. For example, a PPP project can achieve efficient allocation of rescue resources through the government service purchase model.

V. Investment Strategy Analysis

(I) Core track: Focusing on technical barriers and scenes of urgent need

Intelligent equipment research and development: Prioritize the layout of drones, underwater robots, AI command platforms and other fields, and focus on enterprises with independent navigation and multimodal perception technologies;

Professional talent training: Invest in cooperation projects between vocational training institutions and universities to meet the industry's needs for compound talents;

Regional filling in shortcomings: Pay attention to the construction and equipment update needs of rescue bases in weak areas such as inland rivers and islands in the South China Sea.

(II) Risk Avoidance: Pay attention to policy fluctuations and technical iteration

Policy risks: Local fiscal pressure may lead to delays in subsidies, and enterprises with stable cash flow and in-depth government cooperation need to be selected;

Technical risks: The domestic production rate of high-end equipment is low, and it is necessary to evaluate the company's R&D strength and supply chain security;

Competitive risk: Leading companies have a high market share, and new entrants need to break through barriers through differentiated services (such as customized solutions in segmented fields).

(III) Long-term value: Grasp the marine economy and security awareness to improve dividends

With the expansion of the scale of the marine economy and the deepening of public safety awareness, the maritime search and rescue industry will maintain steady growth. Investors can pay attention to companies with the ability to integrate the entire industrial chain and leading international layout to share industry dividends.

If you need to know more about the specific situation analysis of the maritime search and rescue industry reports, you can click to view the "2025-2030 China Maritime Search and Rescue Industry Investment Value Analysis and Development Trend Forecast Report" by China Academy of Technology.