Data published by the Yangtze Maritime Safety Administration showed that 153 major accidents and collisions happened within its jurisdiction between January and June this year. They caused 17 deaths and 18 vessels to sink, leading to a direct loss of Rmb14m.

These totals represented improvements on the same period last year: by 37 per cent in terms of the number of fatalities, 22 per cent in terms of the number of sunken vessels and 12 per cent in terms of direct losses.