CMI's first self-made cruise ship for polar expeditions is docked at Haimen Port in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, on March 12. [Photo by Xu Congjun/for China Daily]

A total of 18 projects involving water navigation and special storage equipment were signed at a marine engineering industrial conference held in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, on Dec 7. The projects received a total of $2.3 billion in investment.

The conference, part of the 2019 Nantong Marine Engineering Industry Exhibition, was the first of its kind to be held in Nantong. More than 700 experts and business leaders from China, the Netherlands, Japan, and Singapore took part.

The marine engineering industry is a key driver of Nantong's economy. It is the second-largest shipbuilding and marine engineering center in China with a 10 percent domestic market share in the shipping industry and a 25 percent market share in the marine engineering equipment industry.

The city has produced a number of world-class vessels, including China's first 20,000-TEU container vessel, the first Chinese-built polar cruise ship, and Asia's largest dredging vessel.