Ships Taken Up From Trade (STUFT)

The civilian fleet has always been called the "Second Navy" of the country, and China is no exception - often using civil vessels for training during military exercises. According to the published amphibious landing exercise footage, the Chinese military was able to use a large number of large fishing vessels to conduct landing operations, and placed rockets such as rockets on the cargo ship deck to provide fire support for the landing forces. It is also estimated that ro-ro ships can be used to quickly transport and load mechanized units.

Ships Taken Up From Trade (STUFT) is an arrangment for supplementing the fleet in time of war under which a merchant ship takes aboard a naval officer to command, and sometimes a few other naval personnel to help run the ship. A number of merchant ships can usually be made available. In the case of the Falklands War where no friendly base was close at hand, it required the Royal Navy taking up from trade (STUFT) some fifty-four ships ranging from large passenger liners, repair vessels and tankers to deep-sea fishing vessels (for mine hunting purposes).

In November 2019 the Chinese Navy installed modular navigation horizontal replenishment systems on a civilian ship for the first time, and made "major breakthroughs" in the implementation of marine replenishment of surface ships. The Naval Academy expert and a combat support ship detachment from Dongpinghu Type 898 Comprehensive Supply Ship ship supply unit formed a steering group to prepare for the commerical container ship Fuzhou deck. The navy Jiangkai-class frigate Linyi (FFG-547) maneuvered to the Fuzhou vessel port side horizontal dry cargo supply position. The Fuzhou crew fired a cable, and the Fuzhou quickly transferred the distance cable and the overhead cable to the Linyi. The Fuzhou smoothly transfered the dry cargo container to the Linyi deck, and the test of the modular navigation horizontal replenishment system replenishing device was successfully completed.

Later the same day, the Fuzhou and the Navy Type 903A supply ship AOE-889 Taihu were connected and tested. The Fuzhou's navigational horizontal replenishment system receiving device was used to set up the elevated cable between the two ships to realize the mutual transfer of materials. The process was smooth and achieved the intended test purpose. The performance of the device was tested, and the civil ship was replenished for the first time by a replenishment supply ship, which is conducive to the new way of mobilizing the civilian ship to participate in the maritime protection.

Built in 2013 by QINGSHAN SHIPYARD, the small container ship SINOTRANS FUZHOU (IMO: 9642069) is a Container Ship registered and sailing under the flag of China. Her gross tonnage is 19309 and deadweight is 28895. SINOTRANS FUZHOU was built in 2013 by QINGSHAN SHIPYARD. SINOTRANS FUZHOU length overall (LOA) is 179.7 m, beam is 28 m and maximum draught is 10.2 m. Her container capacity is 1800 TEU [a tenth that of the largest container ships].

Sinotrans Sunny Express Co., Ltd. was founded in 2009. The company's line of business includes the arranging of transportation of freight and cargo. Sinotrans Sunny Express Co Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinotrans, was officially launched last week in Shanghai. Its parent company focuses on international freight forwarding, air cargo and international express delivery, but Sinotrans Sunny Express specializes in domestic shipping along the Yangtze River. The new service was introduced to meet the growing demand for domestic shipping. Sinotrans is China's second-largest shipping agency.

The system was developed by the Naval Research Institute and the naval organization of the Northern Theater. The use of civilian ships to carry out maritime navigation dry cargo replenishment for naval vessels is a new attempt in the field of naval logistics support. As the operational strength of China's navy surface ships continues to grow, the tasks of the offshore missions are gradually increasing, and the demand for maritime logistics support is increasingly prominent. The system adopts the modular design concept and comprehensively uses a number of key technologies such as all-electric drive, supercapacitor energy storage and constant tension control. The integration is high and the compatibility is strong. It is suitable for rapid modification and can be used on civil vessels in a short time. It is converted into a dry cargo supply ship with sea recharge capacity.

The use of civilian ships to install replenishment devices has great potential for constructing marine replenishment, and the military economic benefits are remarkable. The success of this test will provide important technical support for the application of the all-electric drive navigation lateral replenishment system for the next-type supply ship, which is of practical significance for realizing China's strong military dream.

China issued the "Technical Standards for the Implementation of National Defense Requirements for Newly Built Civil Ships" in June 2015, which required that container ships, ro-ro ships and other civilian vessels must implement national defense military requirements during construction so that they can be quickly converted to military use during wartime. However, civil vessels are ultimately civilian vessels. Even if they carry out national defense military requirements for construction, they are only rigid in certain technical indicators. Compared with real military vessels, there is still a certain gap. Therefore, whether considering from a strategic point of view or from specific operational indicators such as anti-sinking and structural strength, civilian vessels can only be used as a powerful complement to military ships, and cannot replace their positions.

Although the Chinese navy's regular amphibious transportation strength is frail, the British armed force gave the Chinese navy considerable inspiration. This transportation strength, if concentrated reasonably, might solve the problems of military marine transportation. It could permit simultaneously the large-scale embarkation of troops on merchantman, and also might bring the urgent need for the cutting edge army, the armored cavalry group, for rapidly opening the enemy depth. The People's Liberation Army trains hard to capture the enemy's harbor positions. But Taiwan's armed forces also fully realize this point, regarding this early deployment of the Chinese army.

China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), the PRC's state-owned shipping company, operates under the direction of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and answers to the PRC State Council. China Ocean Shipping Company [COSCO] owns and operates more than 100 general cargo and specialized carriers on the basis of liner and tramp services, including state-of-the-art heavylifts, semi-submersible, ro-ro, multi-purpose, car carriers with their overall capacity ranking ahead in the world. Cosco was deemed by the U.S. House of Representatives Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare to be a military-related entity. According to the Task Force report, “Although presented as a commercial entity, Cosco is actually an arm of the Chinese Military.”

China Ocean Shipping Company attempted to lease port space that was being vacated by the U.S. Navy in Long Beach, California. The lease proposal led to a heated debate between Congress, which wanted to prevent the lease based on national security concerns, and President Clinton, who supported the lease. Legislation passed by both houses of Congress in 1997 barred the lease and voided the President's authority to grant a waiver. COSCO's shipping fleet handled about 85% of Chinese exports to the United States.

According to the 1995 international ship registry society records, China had about 1,700 existing merchantmen of 1,000 tons or above, with a total freight volume above 3 million tons, [the world's fifth place].

On Dec 8, 1999, China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co (COSCO) Shipping Co., Ltd. (COSCO Shipping) was jointly established by Guangzhou Ocean Shipping Company, Guangzhou Ocean Shipping Agency, Shenzhen Ocean Shipping Co., Ltd. and COSCO Guangzhou International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. On April 18, 2002, COSCO Shipping, with registered capital of RMB 468 million, went public at the Shanghai Stock Exchange under the name of COSCO Shipping (600428) which became part of the Shanghai Stock Exchange 180 Index in 2003. It owns and operates 89 ships including heavy lift, semi-submersible, ro-ro/lo-lo, multi-purpose, general cargo ships and pure car carriers, totaling over 1,400,000 DWT.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Communication, by the end of 2000, China has owned a fleet of 2525 vessels for international shipping with 37 million deadweight tonnage, of which 1986 were Chinese vessels with 17 million deadweight tonnage, making up 46.3% of the aggregate international shipping fleets and 539 ships are the flag-of-convenience ships controlled by Chinese enterprises with the deadweight of 19.90 million deadweight, taking up 53.7% of the total carrying capacity. In 2000, China's international shipping fleets made up 5.3% of the total carrying capacity of the world fleets, and container slots accounted for 5.0% of the aggregate world slot capacity. The total carrying capacity of China's fleets still ranked the fifth place in the world.

Vessel investment is mainly made by China's state-owned enterprises and it seems that some investment bodies have become interested in the international shipping sector in China in the recent years. China Ocean Shipping Company, China Shipping Group Company and China National Foreign Trade Transportation Corporation have made large scaled investment with the joint proportion exceeding 60%. For the purpose of vessel type structure, bulk carriers have taken the largest proportion, making up 55.9% of the total deadweight of the China's international shipping fleets (including convenient flag vessels). Next is the oil tankers, accounting for 15.1%. Container ships, general cargo vessels and multi-purpose vessels have made up 13.0%, 7.1% and 6.2% respectively. The proportion of other type vessels seems a little bit small.

By the end of 2000, the carrying capacity of domestic transport fleets reached 29.05 million deadweight tonnage, 1.01 million passengers berths and 28000 TEU slots, with 8.53 million deadweight tonnage for coastal shipping and 20.52 million deadweight for inland waterway transport, making up 96.9% and 70.65 of the aggregate domestic carrying capacity.

In 2000 there were 290 shipping companies registered in China and engaged in international shipping and most of the shipping companies, except China Ocean Shipping Co. [COSCO] and China Shipping Group, tended to be small, with the average carrying capacity of below 10,000 deadweight tonnage, some of them being single-ship companies. The competent authority in charge of transport under the State Council put forward the guiding ideology to speed up structure adjustment of shipping enterprises and development of scale transport, to encourage merge of shipping enterprises and large-sized cargo owners, to encourage alliance of shipping enterprises with powerful strength and competition capability with assets as links; to build large-sized shipping enterprises and groups of trans-area, trans-sector, trans-ownership and trans-nation operation; to stimulate medium and small sized shipping enterprises through restructuring of assets, reform and reorganization, merge and alliance, share stocking etc. so as to establish satisfactory modern enterprise system and improve market competitive capability of the international shipping enterprises. Special ships such as large container ships, ro/ro ships, liquefied chemical carriers, oil-product carriers, high-speed passenger ships and ro/ro passenger ships will be developed in a large scale so as to increase the proportion of such ships in the coastal carrying capacity.

China Shipping Group was founded on 01 July 1997, in Shanghai. It is one of the 44 key state-owned enterprises under the direct administration of the Central Government and is a super-large shipping conglomerate that operates across different regions, different sectors and different countries. China Shipping has total assets of RMB 40 billion. Under its umbrella, there are five specialized shipping fleets of oil tankers, tramps, passenger ships, container vessels and special cargo ships, respectively, comprising 400 vessels with an aggregate deadweight of 11.5 million tonnes. China Shipping Group signed an Equity Joint Venture Contract with KAWASAKI KISEN KAISHA, LTD (K-Line) on November 25, 2003 to explore the RORO transportation market jointly, and aimed to start conducting domestic and international Ro-Ro vessels transportation business in the first half of 2004.