China Aims to Build More than Half the World's Cleaner-fuel Ships by 2025

China has set itself the goal of producing more than half of the world's ships powered by cleaner fuels by 2025, in guidelines published by the industry ministry on Thursday.

It did not give any estimates of the number of ships involved. But the guidelines said China would build more vessels powered by lower-carbon fuels such as methanol and liquefied natural gas, part of Beijing's push to become carbon neutral by 2060.

"Implement innovation in ship engines, improve the efficiency of traditional fuel and LNG marine engines, and steadily increase the use of LNG in marine engines at scale," the document issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.

Key enterprises have made progress in reducing pollution and carbon emissions with the comprehensive energy consumption per 10,000 yuan dropping by 13.5% from 2020 levels, it added.

The environmental overhaul of the shipping industry would be completed by 2030, it added.

(Reuters - Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Jane Merriman and Andrew Heavens)