MOL Group, Yokohama National University to Launch Joint Study on Practical Use of Big Data for Ocean Shipping
- Aiming to Apply AI to Improve Ocean Shipping Market Forecast -

August 30, 2016

TOKYO-Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President & CEO: Junichiro Ikeda) today announced that the company and its subsidiary MOL Information Systems, Ltd. (*1) (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Nobunaga Shima) have signed a contract with Yokohama National University (Headquarters: Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture; President: Yuichi Hasebe) to conduct a joint study on the analysis and use of big data related to ocean shipping.

The joint study is aimed at developing the capability to analyze data related to economics and maritime affairs and forecast the ocean shipping market and bunker prices with greater accuracy by using artificial intelligence (AI) in cooperation with Professor Tomoharu Nagao (*2) of the university's Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences. The partners will also proceed with new studies to develop management support tools.

The MOL Group continually takes a proactive stance in promoting the practical use and application of IT and combines each division's intelligence, with the goal of creating a shipping group that is always customers' first choice when it comes to transport and logistics.

(*1) MOL Information Systems, Ltd.
MOL's wholly owned subsidiary established to develop, maintain, and support systems and networks throughout the MOL Group.
http://www.molis.co.jp/en/index.html

(*2) Professor Tomoharu Nagao
One of Japan's top AI experts, Professor Nagao, Doctor of Engineering, is renowned all over the world as the first researcher in Japan to focus attention on evolutionary computation, in which he achieved numerous advances. He has conducted joint studies with over 120 corporations, such as time-series forecasts of variables with banks and financial institutions and research on intelligent automobiles. He graduated from Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology. He was appointed to his current position in 2001, after serving as assistant and associate professor at School of Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology.