COSCO Shipping Bulk and Huawei Launch Intelligent Vessel Scheduling System

COSCO Shipping Bulk, the dry bulk division of China COSCO Shipping Group, partnered with Chinese tech company Huawei to develop an intelligent vessel scheduling system. The solution was unveiled this week at the North Bund International Shipping Forum in Shanghai, with the aim of shifting ship-to-cargo allocation away from reliance mainly on experience and toward data- and model-based support.

According to sources, vessel scheduling involves cross-referencing numerous constantly changing factors: the availability of each vessel, loading and discharging requirements, current charter commitments, ballast voyage distances, and port operating conditions. The system was presented on October 21 during the "Digital and Intelligent" themed forum at the North Bund International Shipping Forum 2026, and was one of six digital and intelligent shipping projects showcased at the event, which brought together around 400 representatives from the shipping industry, technology sector, and academia.

Qiu Shikui, president of Huawei's Intelligent Logistics and Warehousing unit, stated that maritime transport is moving from data-based operations to intelligence-driven operations, and that Huawei's role is to provide a digital and intelligent foundation that makes operations visible, calculable, and adjustable across the entire chain. Meanwhile, Li Wei, deputy general manager of China COSCO Shipping Group, described the group's use of digital route planning, intelligent fleet management, and green and smart ship technologies, and noted the shift from isolated applications to end-to-end coordination and from pilot projects to standardized operations.

The alliance with Huawei is not COSCO Shipping Bulk's first step into artificial intelligence: the company had already launched assistants such as the "Commercial Loss Prevention Intelligent Assistant 1.0," the "Intelligent Ship-Finding Assistant," and the "Ship-Cargo Easy Assistant" in March 2025, and in July of this year rolled out the "Wuming" platform, which supports vessel operations, cargo matching, voyage calculation, and freight market analysis. COSCO Shipping Bulk operates more than 500 vessels and, according to cited figures, its cargo volume reached 2.04 trillion ton-miles in 2025, up 25.6% year-on-year. Neither COSCO nor Huawei specified how many vessels are already using the new system or quantified concrete operational savings.

The agreement adds to Huawei's broader expansion in port and maritime technology. In September, the company had launched an AI-powered port planning platform connecting pilotage, berth allocation, crane deployment, yard operations, and stowage planning, promising to cut planning times from hours to minutes and a plan acceptance rate above 90%. Huawei had also previously worked with port operators such as Tianjin Port Group, Shandong Port Group Yantai Port Group, Shenzhen Port Group, and Ningbo Zhoushan Port, while COSCO Shipping also maintains cooperation with Alibaba and an intelligent computing platform with more than 220P of capacity and over 130 AI application scenarios.