The development of cutter suction dredgers has gone through three stages: First, in the 18th century, Americans invented the cutter suction dredger. At that time, dredgers were mainly used for dredging silt in inland rivers, and their hulls were relatively small. This stage lasted until the 1960s. The second stage was from the 1960s to the 1990s, with countries like the Netherlands and Japan taking the lead in land reclamation in the open sea. The Netherlands alone reclaimed 2,300 square kilometers of land in the last century, equivalent to about 320,000 standard football fields, thus propelling it to a leading position in the design and development of cutter suction dredgers. The third stage began after 2000, with large cutter suction dredgers heading to the deep sea, and China began its rise. China’s independent innovation capabilities have significantly improved, achieving a qualitative leap from domestic modification to completely independent design and construction. In 2017, the Ministry of Commerce issued a notice stating that, in order to safeguard national security and interests, it prohibited the export of high-powered cutter suction dredgers to any country.
Large cutter suction dredgers churn up unseen riverbed and seabed sediment and reefs, enabling the take-off of port economies and solidifying the foundation of a maritime power. From being unable to design and manufacture them 20 years ago to today, with one after another domestically designed and built marine heavy equipment setting sail, we applaud the unremitting efforts of generations of Chinese scientists and look forward to the birth of more such Chinese innovations!