Recently, China Metallurgical Engineering Co., Ltd. of Sinosteel MECC signed the project supervision contract, with Marine Technology Office of Ministry of Science and Technology and Institute of Acoustics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, for the Seafloor Observation Network Test System Project under the 863 Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology. As the sole supervisor of this project, Sinosteel MECC will carry out supervision to its research process.

 The Seafloor Observation Network Test System is to be built in South China Sea in accordance with the urgent demand on building undersea observation networks, by working through the technologies of undersea network nodes, construction, laying, maintenance, system control and in-situ multi-parameter detection. The system, after being completed, will become the test base for deep seafloor observation technology of our country, and perform long and real time monitoring to the deep ocean dynamic, chemical and geophysical environment. This is a key project of the 863 Program in the field of oceanology over the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period, and also another supervision project undertaken by Sinosteel MECC in critical filed following the equipment supervision of the Jiaolong manned deep-sea submersible.