From 16 to 19 September, the 7th Nantong Marine Engineering Industry Exhibition was held at the Nantong International Convention and Exhibition Centre. As a major specialised exhibition in China's shipbuilding and marine engineering sector, the show brought together numerous companies from across the industrial chain. Highlander presented two core flagship products — the HLD-RADAR 900S fully solid-state marine navigation radar and the NavMind autonomous navigation system. Backed by solid domestically developed technology, the booth saw a constant flow of visitors and a large number of customers coming to look at the products, ask questions and discuss technology.

HLD-RADAR 900S: No Magnetron, Lower Maintenance Costs Down the Line

The HLD-RADAR 900S fully solid-state marine navigation radar highlighted at this exhibition is Highlander's self-developed mainstay product for import substitution. Available in X-band and S-band models, it adopts third-generation gallium nitride (GaN) solid-state transmission technology, tackling at the root the industry problem of conventional magnetron radars, which wear out quickly and require frequent replacement of parts. The product has no consumable parts, significantly reducing a vessel's later maintenance costs; it performs exceptionally well in small-target identification in harsh sea states such as waves and rain; and it features instant-on operation, no tuning and built-in system fault diagnostics. It meets domestic and international ship survey requirements, and can be fitted to a wide range of vessels including ocean-going cargo ships, offshore engineering vessels and inland waterway vessels; it can also support equipment packages for ship export projects.

NavMind: Perception, Decision-Making and Control in One System

Another highlight, NavMind, is a new-generation autonomous navigation system focused on two application scenarios: inland waterways and coastal waters. The system deeply integrates navigation radar and electronic charts, and uses AI algorithms to fuse multi-source targets. Its core functions include auxiliary collision avoidance, track-keeping and assisted/automatic berthing and unberthing, and it can be extended with value-added services such as smart engine room and energy efficiency management. No additional hardware is needed — a function upgrade alone delivers a step up in intelligence. It suits a wide range of vessel types including new-energy vessels and LNG carriers, has been applied on the main lines of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River, and provides digital and intelligent services across the vessel's entire life cycle.

On Site: From Comparing Specs to Discussing Solutions

Throughout the exhibition Highlander's booth was bustling, with a stream of professional visitors — shipowners, shipyards, ship design institutes and shipping service providers. Many came specifically to learn about the two core products, asking detailed questions on practical matters such as performance parameters, real-vessel application results, installation and retrofit options, procurement and delivery, and ship survey certification. The Highlander team received visitors throughout, demonstrating product functions one by one, explaining technical advantages, answering concerns according to different vessel types and operating conditions, and recording market requirements as they went. Many visiting customers showed strong interest in the two domestically produced products and began preliminary discussions on site about further technical engagement and project cooperation.

Starting from Nantong: Taking Customer Needs Back to R&D

Drawing on its production and R&D park in Nantong, Highlander is deeply integrated into the local shipbuilding and marine engineering industry cluster, committed to independent innovation and to continuously refining intelligent marine equipment. At this exhibition, the dense flow of customer enquiries also fully reflected strong market demand for domestically produced solutions in vessel navigation perception and autonomous navigation.

Looking ahead, Highlander will continue to focus on iterative optimisation of core products such as marine solid-state radar and autonomous navigation systems, feed customer needs gathered from the front line of the market into product R&D, continue to deliver highly reliable domestically produced maritime solutions, support the intelligent upgrading of domestic vessels and drive high-quality development of the shipping industry.