Mitsui OSK Lines using articificial intelligence to predict cape freight markets

MOL using articificial intelligence to predict cape freight markets
Sam Chambers August 30th, 2018 https://splash247.com/mol-using-articificial-intelligence-to-predict-cap...

The world’s largest operator of dry bulk vessels has revealed it has been using articificial intelligence for the last two years to predict which way capesize freight rates will go.

Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) announced today it has concluded a technology consulting agreement with Professor Tomoharu Nagao of the Yokohama National University Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences. MOL has been working with Nagao since 2016 to forecast the dry bulk market by analysing a large range of data.

MOL said it will continue to promote the use and application of ICT-based trends in advanced digitalisation.

Nagao is the creator of next-generation AI advanced machine learning and the percolative learning method, a model that percolates future information from machine learning.

A spokesperson for MOL told Splash today that the company has been testing AI to predict the cape freight market and which way it will move over certain periods such as a week or a month.

“It has been tested against our chartering desks forecast, and results are close,” a spokesperson said.