The container vessel Xin Cang Zhou completes a ship registration change while at sea, with the help of Yangshan Port. [Photo/WeChat ID: shlgguanweihui]

In a landmark development, the Yangshan Port Office of the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration on June 30 sent a raft of key approved documents – such as a new electronic certificate of nationality – to container ship vessel Xin Cang Zhou while it was still at sea.

The significance is that this was the first time that Yangshan Port – located in East China's Shanghai city – dealt with ship registration while a vessel was sailing.

To make it happen, the Yangshan Port Office undertook a pre-examination in advance and applied specialist service know how to optimize its work procedures. It took only one day for the owner of the ship to obtain the key documents – the certificate of deletion of the original ship registration, the certificate of the ship's new nationality and the certificate of registration for a bareboat charter – after submitting the materials.

The raft of documents for the vessel that were fast-tracked while it was still at sea. [Photo/WeChat ID: shlgguanweihui]

In addition, the registration changes realized the simultaneous cancellation and registration of the old and new ship registration authorities, which saved a lot of cost and time, berthing and vessel management for shipping enterprises.

Jiang Zhong, legal representative of the vessel's owner, said that compared with before – when they dealt with ship registration changes during repair periods – the process was much faster and more convenient.

There are currently 29 registered ships with China Yangshan Port nationality.