Sixteenth Meeting of the Liaison Group for the Shipping Community

Members of the Liaison Group for the Shipping Community of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) attended the annual meeting at the HKO Headquarters on 28 November 2025 with a total of 24 representatives from 17 shipping companies, container terminal operators, the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, the Hong Kong Pilots Association and the Marine Department.

Awards were given to the Hong Kong Voluntary Observing Ships (HKVOS) in recognition of their outstanding contributions of marine observations in 2024. The awardees included China LNG Shipping (International) Co. Ltd., Seaspan Ship Management Ltd., Fleet Management Ltd., Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd. (OOCL), CMA CGM (HK) Ltd. and Maersk Hong Kong Ltd. Certificates of appreciation were given to OOCL for their assistance in deploying two drifting buoys in the South China Sea in 2024 to enhance ocean observations for tropical cyclone monitoring.

The shipping community was briefed at the meeting on the latest development of the weather services provided by the HKO. Sea state forecasts on the Internet would be extended from 4 to 6 days in 2026. A prototype ship route-based marine weather forecast was introduced with a simple demonstration. HKO would seek more users’ feedback on the prototype before further development. HKO would also continue identifying suitable vessels for installation of automatic weather stations and deploy more weather buoys in collaboration with the South China Sea Bureau of the Ministry of Natural Resources of China to enhance automatic collection of marine meteorological data.

Participants actively shared views and contributed ideas to future marine weather service enhancement for the shipping community and suggested recognition of ship crew’s contribution to ship weather reporting. HKO would take into consideration all the suggestions received in the course of planning.

The Sixteenth Meeting of the Liaison Group for the Shipping Community