Hubei Daily News (reporter Gan Yong, Wu Wenjuan, reporter Wang Dong) a container ship, starting from Wuhan, if, without loading and unloading transshipment, directly via the Yangtze River and reached the Zhoushan sea area, the sailing time can be shortened by half; a ton of ore, if transported by the river-to-sea ships, the logistics cost can be cut 20%. The design project "with the loading capacity of Thousands of containers of” has been released; the first demonstration boat is to build this year, can be its water trial is to be done by the next year." Yesterday, the chairman Wang Xiaogen of  WUT SHIP told reporters with excitement, the company has completed the design work of the 1.5 million ton ship with total independent intellectual property rights,  which is gearing up for operation at an early date.
     Wu Weiguo, the leading expert of national ship and ocean engineering, told the reporters, now the existing river-to-sea container ship only posses a boatload of, generally, below one million ton, which is, 500 to 600 containers loading weight, and that capacity far beyond the demand of  the Yangtze River transportation; newly developed type 980TEU river-to-sea container ship, the strengths of which are safety, energy saving, environmental protection, and good quality but with preferable price. It is 136.5 meters in total length, maximum cargo volume is 14550 tons, which means, thousands of containers can be held at the mean time. This cargo capacity is two times than that of the old typed ships. "The fuel consumption of the demonstration ship is decreased by 20% , compared with the existing optimal performance ship." Wu Weiguo said, It has been evaluated by the experts of Ministry of Technology and Information and the Ministry of education that it catches up the international leading level.