Guangzhou Party Secretary Yonghang Guo Visits Sealien Robotics

Guangzhou Party Secretary Yonghang Guo Visits Sealien Robotics — Seizing the Emerging Opportunities in the Deep-Sea Industry and Taking the Lead in Industrial Development

(Source: Guangzhou Daily)

On July 31, Yonghang Guo, Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee, visited Sealien Robotics to conduct an on-site inspection and gain an in-depth understanding of the company's technology and product development in the fields of deep-sea technology and future marine industries. Accompanying officials included Liming Bian, Member of the Standing Committee and Secretary-General of the Municipal Party Committee; Wei Liu, Member of the Standing Committee and Secretary of the Nansha District Party Committee; Zhitao Jiang, Vice Mayor; Zepeng Chen, Deputy Secretary-General of the Municipal Party Committee and Director of the Policy Research Office; Yuan Yao, Deputy Director of the General Office of the Municipal Party Committee; Wei Xie, Deputy Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee of the Nansha Development Zone; Sa Wu, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Municipal Development and Reform Commission; Maoying Deng, Director of the Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Bureau; and Jianhua Zhang, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology. Sealien Robotics’ founder and Chairman Eamon Ma accompanied the delegation during the visit.

Secretary Guo and his delegation visited the exhibition hall at the Sealien Robotics headquarters and R&D center, where they received a detailed briefing on the company’s product line layout, core technology breakthroughs, industrial implementation, and export activities. Chairman Eamon Ma focused on presenting the company’s phased achievements and innovation plans in the field of deep-sea robotics.

Sealien Robotics has consistently emphasized the development of deep-sea technology and the innovative application of AI in the marine field. On July 1, just days before the sixth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission chaired by General Secretary Jinping Xi, which highlighted the importance of promoting high-quality development of the marine economy, Sealien Robotics led China’s deep-sea technology industry in making history: on June 25, the company successfully exported a fully domestically developed deep-sea robot overseas.

Since officially commencing operations in early 2023, the company has focused on two core product lines — subsea work-class ROV and large-scale subsea engineering robots. Led by three co-founders with strong technical expertise and a broad industry vision, the team has overcome more than a dozen major technical challenges, including overall system adaptability, pressure resistance and sealing, deep-sea servo-hydraulic power systems, high power density propulsion, and integrated navigation and positioning. They have also cultivated a network of over 100 key domestic suppliers. Within just two years, the company has achieved multiple industry firsts domestically:

■ February 2024: Successfully developed Asia’s largest seabed cable and pipeline burying tractor.

■ May 2024: Supported China’s offshore wind power construction with the first use of a high-grade seabed cable and pipeline burying tractor.

■ August 2024: Became the first Chinese private enterprise to sell intelligent subsea cable burial equipment to the domestic market.

■ November 2024: Achieved China’s first overseas batch export of core systems and components for subsea robots.

■ June 25, 2025: Marked the first-ever commercial export of domestically developed subsea robots in Chinese history.

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The company’s two flagship product lines — subsea work-class ROV and seabed cable and pipeline burying tractor — have both reached full-scale commercialization. With 100% domestic production and over 90% in-house R&D and manufacturing of core components, the products have received authoritative certification from the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA), further enhancing their appeal to overseas clients.

Chairman Eamon Ma emphasized that three strategic priorities have driven the company’s success: independent innovation in core technologies, the development and management of a domestic supply chain, and a robust engineering and standardization system. Sealien Robotics currently holds the largest number of intellectual property rights among domestic industry players and has established over 400 technical standards covering R&D, manufacturing, testing, supply chain management, and quality control — a level of system integrity that ranks among the highest in the industry. These achievements have ensured that the company can deliver a unit price of tens of millions RMB products, laying a solid foundation for efficient and reliable iteration of its product lines.

Looking ahead, the company will remain committed to its mission of “Deep Sea + Intelligence”, continuing to drive the development and iteration of unmanned marine systems. It has already established a pioneering virtual simulation platform for ocean environment dynamic coupling robotic systems — the first of its kind in China — bringing the deep sea into the laboratory and accelerating the development of autonomous operation software for work-class ROVs, subsea equipment, and deep-sea mining robots through deep learning frameworks. Meanwhile, the company is also launching a series of pre-research projects for disruptive underwater applications, taking steady steps toward leading the transformation and upgrading of the ocean industry.

Secretary Guo acknowledged the company’s achievements in core technology innovation and industrialization. He emphasized that the deep-sea industry holds immense promise and that the marine economy should not be confined to traditional sectors. Areas like deep-sea mining and robotics still have significant untapped potential. Finally, he encouraged research institutes and enterprises to stay focused on emerging opportunities in the deep-sea and aerospace sectors, accelerate breakthroughs in key technologies, and strive to claim the high ground in industrial development.