"It is unique in the world," said Chang Yonghui, deputy head of Mawei Shipbuilding. "Equipped with several cutting-edge and world-leading technologies, this deep sea mining vessel marks a new step forward in the nation's maritime construction and deep sea vessel application."

China has been working on core techniques to detect natural gas hydrate in the deep sea and plans to master key skills in its commercial extraction by 2020.

"It is an unprecedented innovation in that the mining vessel integrates the ship, mining and production systems. It will also be an efficient and safe process to work in the deep sea," said Chang.

According to him, the 227-meter-long, 40-meter-wide vessel will provide living and working space for 200 people and can store up to 39,000 metric tons of ore.

Founded in 1866, Mawei Shipbuilding, was one of the country's first shipbuilders. It has pioneered China's modern shipbuilding, marine military force development and aircraft manufacturing.

"Due to the higher order numbers brought by the B&R Initiative, we have moved from being a traditional ship manufacturer to a high-end and high-tech ship builder," he said.

To better suit the rising demands from B&R countries and regions in the future, the company added that it is beefing up efforts to develop new types of vessels. These vessels, including seafood processing and delivery vessels, will have huge demand in the emerging markets including the B&R markets.