More than 10 shipbuilding and repair companies in Zhoushan currently use eco-friendly equipment. [Photo/WeChat account: china-zjftz]

The shipbuilding industry in Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province, has been promoting eco-friendly ship repair equipment in recent years in order to minimize the impact on the environment, according to recent local media reports.

A piece of circular vacuum derusting equipment known as Shipyard Spirit has proved massively popular among ship repair companies.

Compared with traditional handheld spray guns, Shipyard Spirit not only can cover a larger area, but also is capable of recycling waste produced from derusting.

Shipyard Spirit improves derusting efficiency from eight square meters per hour to 25 to 50 sq m per hour, and now 20 Shipyard Spirits are capable of carrying out the same workload as 100 spray guns.

Another piece of waste recovery equipment known as Shipyard Blue Whale is capable of recycling, filtering, and storing waste water and residue generated while derusting, as well as separately treating waste paint slags and waste water.

"It usually takes about 10 to 15 hours to derust a ship, and throughout this entire process, Shipyard Blue Whale only needs to discharge waste two times," said Zhang Xingbo, assistant general manager of Zhoushan IMC-Yongyue Shipyard and Engineering Co Ltd, producer of the two eco-friendly ship repair facilities.

The sales revenue of the two facilities reached 50 million yuan ($7.24 million) this year, according to Zhang.

"As the shipbuiding and shipping industries become harder on the environment, those who manage or find eco-friendly alternatives will see stable development," noted Chen Yong, general manager of IMC-Yongyue.

Shipbuilding and ship repair are traditional pillar industries of Zhoushan. At present, more than 10 such companies in the city are making use of eco-friendly shipbuilding and repair equipment.