Recently, the Hainan International Ship Registration Bureau successfully completed the ownership and nationality registration procedures for the ship “Lv Shanghai”. This marks the first vessel in China for domestic ship export tax rebate, flying the Five-Star Red Flag, engaged in leasing business, to be registered in “China Yangpu Port”, further upgrading the shipping policy dividends of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
The “Lv Shanghai” is a general cargo ship with a length of 225 meters, a beam of 32.26 meters, a depth of 21 meters, and a gross tonnage of 49,000 tons. It sails on major routes across Asia, Europe, America, and Africa, serving global trade. The shipowner is a special purpose subsidiary under CITIC Financial Leasing Co., Ltd., located within the Yangpu Bonded Port Area, and it is time-chartered to Yangpu COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers Co., Ltd. This vessel is the first in China to be sold by a domestic shipbuilder to a financial enterprise, registered in “China Yangpu Port”, engaged in international and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan transportation, and eligible for value-added tax rebate. It is the first time the benefit of VAT rebate for newly built ships has been extended from traditional shipping enterprises to financial leasing institutions, resolving the “policy coverage blind spot” in the shipping finance sector.
To efficiently respond to the enterprise’s need to register the “Lv Shanghai” in “China Yangpu Port”, the Hainan International Ship Registration Bureau proactively innovated its service model, focusing on enterprise needs by implementing “forward-leaning services”. They prepared for business acceptance one month in advance, assigned a “service specialist” for liaison immediately, meticulously reviewed administrative procedures, processes, and requirements item by item, provided precise guidance for preparing application materials, and initiated a pre-review mechanism for materials. They simultaneously implemented convenient measures such as accepting applications with missing documents to be supplemented later and streamlined approval. The “Lv Shanghai” completed all registration procedures in just a few hours, saving nearly 90% of the time compared to traditional processes, allowing the enterprise to “make fewer trips and get more done”.
The successful registration of the “Lv Shanghai” opens up space for financial leasing companies to expand their shipping finance business in the Hainan Free Trade Port, broadens the source channels for ships in “China Yangpu Port”, and is conducive to attracting more financial leasing companies to establish special purpose companies in Yangpu. This will form a cluster effect for the ship leasing industry and enhance the influence of the Hainan Free Trade Port in the international shipping market.
In the next step, the Hainan International Ship Registration Bureau will continue to anchor the strategic goals of “service facilitation, management legalization, and development internationalization”, benchmark against advanced international shipping management experiences, continuously optimize the ship registration service process, further expand the influence of the “China Yangpu Port” port of registry, attract more internationally sailing ships to register, and provide strong maritime service support for the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
Reporter Liu Mengxiao, Correspondents Wang Cheng, Li Fangcao
