Shanghai: The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has announced the completion of Chinese coastal coverage under its its Admiralty Vector Chart electronic navigation charts (ENC) Service. AVCS now includes coverage of the Chinese mainland as far as the Pearl River, the Coast of Hainan Island and some of China's busiest ports including Shanghai, Shenzhen and Qingdao.
"The introduction of ENCs for this part of the world is a welcome addition to safe and efficient navigation,' said Changzhe Wu, Marketing & Sales Manager for Sweethigh Navigation Technology Ltd (SNT) in Shanghai - one of the Admiralty distributors providing the AVCS system to Far Eastern shipping companies. "The waterways around major ports such as Shanghai and Singapore are some of the busiest in the world and an AVCS-equipped bridge provides the tools that allow mariners to navigate these passages in the safest manner possible. We are already seeing strong interest in AVCS and other Admiralty digital products and anticipate a significant uptake of the latest Chinese ENCs."
In total the UKHO has now released 375 Chinese ENCs covering the huge area of Chinese coastal waters and all the country's major ports. The new charts are being made available under a unique agreement between the UKHO and its respected colleagues, the Chinese Naval Guarantee Department (NGD).
ENCs are available on flexible three-, six-, nine- and 12-month licensing terms. All come with the added assurance of instant access via the Admiralty remote licensing facility and weekly updating service, both online and on CD.
"As one of the first companies in China to trial this ENC provision, we are already seeing the benefit on the vessels that are using it," said Zheng Mianshen, Senior Superintendent of China Shipping Development Co. Ltd, Tanker Co. "Any system that helps to improve safety onboard and, in the face of one of the most severe economic downturns in memory, provide additional cost savings must be applauded. Mandatory carriage of ECDIS will be with us as early as 2012, and introducing AVCS now provides us with the necessary timeframe to equip, train and test any system before the regulations are enforced."
The addition of ENCs for China to the AVCS folio further extends the service's market-leading coverage. AVCS is now used by more than 675 shipping companies worldwide with more than 60 vessels a week joining the service. [07/06/10]
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