A modern Chinese-built floating dry dock in Cuba, the largest and most modern in both Cuba and the entire Caribbean, has enhanced the country's capabilities to build and repair ships, thus boosting its maritime industry's competitiveness in the global market after over a year of operation.
The dock, built in China's Huarun Dadong shipyards and financed by a multimillion-dollar credit from the Chinese government, started operation in the Havana Harbor in 2023. This 220-meter-long and 48-meter-wide dock can accommodate cargo ships up to 65,000 displacement tons.
Johannes Milian, manager of Cuba's state-owned Caribbean Drydock Company, which operates the dock, said it has helped enhancing shipyard operations in the Havana Harbor.
"Since the dock started operations back in 2023, we have repaired eight ships, including the recovery of boats of our local fleet, which had a positive impact on the country's economy," Milian said.
The Cuban company employs around 500 skilled workers who undertake a variety of boat repairs.
"We do boat hull maintenance, electrical or mechanical work, crane repairs and steel treatment, any kind of work either in the inside or the outside of the ship," said Alvaro Barroso, the company's repair chief.
Both Barroso and Milian said the dock has not only expanded the company's capabilities and improved employee skills but has also granted the maritime industry in Cuba a competitive edge in the international market, with a growing number of foreign clients seeking repairs.
"Our prospects with this dry dock target the foreign market so we can collect hard currency to purchase the materials and resources we need to recover and upgrade our naval operations," Milian said.
Chinese-built floating dry dock enhances Cuba's maritime industry competitiveness
Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China have achieved a major breakthrough in optical clock technology, developing a strontium optical lattice clock with stability and uncertainty both surpassing the 10⁻¹⁹ level, meaning the clock would lose or gain less than one second over roughly 30 billion years.
The findings were published in the international metrology journal Metrologia on Thursday.
Optical clocks are considered the most precise timekeeping devices currently available. They measure time by using the frequency of light emitted when electrons transition between energy levels in atoms. They can directly support the redefinition of the second in the International System of Units.
"This breakthrough enables China to rank among the top in the world in the development of optical clocks. It also provides a feasible technical path for the development of transportable optical clocks and satellite-borne optical clocks, and lays a solid and reliable foundation for using optical clock technology in areas such as testing fundamental laws of physics, supporting next-generation satellite navigation systems, and establishing a globally unified ultra-high-precision time reference," said Dai Hanning, professor of the university.
Beyond time-keeping, optical clocks can provide highly accurate time references for modern technologies such as satellite navigation, telecommunications and precision measurements. They also offer new experimental platforms for testing fundamental physics, including general relativity, as well as for the detection of gravitational waves and dark matter.
Achieving both stability and uncertainty at the 10⁻¹⁹ level opens the door to a range of frontier applications. These include millimeter-level measurements of gravitational potential and altitude, which could help monitor crustal deformation, groundwater changes and volcanic activity, as well as improve geoid mapping for disaster prevention and resource exploration.
Chinese optical clock accurate to within 1 second over 30 bln years
Chinese researchers develop world's most precise optical clock
