Paul Chan urges aligned rules and greener fuels at Hong Kong maritime summit

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on Sunday (November 15) that seaborne trade had defied gloomy forecasts this year, telling a closed-door dialogue at the Hong Kong Global Maritime Trade Summit that the World Trade Organization had recently lifted its 2026 merchandise trade growth projection from 1.9% to 3.9%. Hong Kong's trade with ASEAN topped HK$1.8 trillion in the first nine months of the year.

Green-fuel ship orders up 57%; 382,000 tonnes bunkered in Hong Kong

Chan said shipping was accelerating its green transition: orders for alternative-fuelled ships reached 364 so far this year, 57% higher than a year earlier, according to DNV data. Since last year, ships have bunkered more than 382,000 tonnes of greener maritime fuels in Hong Kong, including LNG, biodiesel and green methanol, under a model of Mainland-made green fuels traded and supplied in Hong Kong to vessels of every flag. He urged the industry to align rules and standards so the green transition is more predictable.

Port Community System draws nearly 10,000 firms; HKMA leads Project CargoX

On port digitalisation, Chan said Hong Kong's Port Community System, launched in January, had attracted close to 10,000 enterprises and now feeds data to customs on both sides of the boundary. Project CargoX, led by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, is also under way. Later in the day, the Hong Kong Maritime and Port Development Board and the ICS Academy were due to sign a memorandum of understanding to train multi-skilled maritime talent for Hong Kong and beyond.