An LNG bunkering vessel made by China International Marine Containers (Group) Co for an Italian client is successfully launched at an industrial ship park in East China's Jiangsu Province on June 26, 2023. Photo: VCG

The signing ceremony for the Beijing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships was held in Beijing at the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) on Tuesday. 

As the first maritime UN convention named after a Chinese city, it will strengthen the rights of ship purchasers and boost the development of international shipping and trade.

China's Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen attended the ceremony and signed the convention. Anna Joubin-Bret, Secretary of the UN Commission on International Trade Law, also attended the ceremony and delivered a speech, according to a statement on the website of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

Delegations from 34 countries and regions attended the signing ceremony in Beijing, with 15 countries and regions including China, Switzerland, Singapore and Saudi Arabia among the first group of signatories. The convention will be placed in the UN headquarters in New York for other countries and regions to sign, the statement said.

The study and draft of the Beijing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships by the UN Commission on International Trade Law lasted four years and was approved by the General Assembly in December 2022, according to MOFCOM.

The convention is designed to ensure legal certainty as to the title that a purchaser acquires in a ship as it navigates internationally. By doing so, the convention increases the stability of related rights, protects the activity of financial institutions in carrying out ship financing and boost the development of international shipping and trade, it said.

This is the first UN convention in the maritime field that names after a Chinese city, and is an accurate reflection of China implementing real multilateralism and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, it said.

According to data provided by global shipping information provider Clarksons Research in August, China has overtaken Greece as the world's largest ship owner in terms of gross tonnage (GT).

During the first half of 2023, Chinese shipyards produced 21.13 million deadweight tons (DWT) of new ships, up 14.2 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in July.