Xuelong set sail successfully for the 35^th Antarctic Expedition on November 2^nd, on which the first batch of 13 sledges by ZPMC was loaded to complete the material transportation for thousands of kilometers on the ice field to support the 35^th Antarctic Expedition Team for the construction of Taishan Station Phase II.  

The Contract on 16 sledges totally was signed between ZPMC and Polar Research Institute of China, involving 4 types of sledges, namely, common sledge, large sledge, oil flexible tank sledge and oil tank sledge, developed and designed independently by ZPMC. The common sledge and oil tank sledge are optimized and upgraded to solve the crack and maintenance difficulty of the present equipment in Antarctica while the large sledge and oil flexible tank sledge are the new transportation equipment on snow and ice researched and developed independently for this Project, which are the first in China, filling in the domestic blank and promoting the Antarctic transportation equipment to be light with multiple purposes.

It is the first time for ZPMC to start the Antarctic projects, indicating a new business field of the Company. Meanwhile, ZPMC will send a senior technician as one member of the 35^th Antarctic Expedition Team to complete the construction of terminal, environment survey as well as assessment on the integration program of transportation, construction and installation of new station.