1-Stop joins Mizzen’s container visibility project w/ University of Technology Sydney

• New partnership to deliver enhanced container supply chain insights and add improved granular forecasting capability

• Allows Mizzen and 1-Stop to explore developing commercial applications​

Sydney, Australia, 26 July 2019 – Mizzen Group, a provider of dynamic pricing and rates information software to the shipping industry, is pleased to announce that 1-Stop Connections Pty Ltd, a global leader in port logistics solutions, has joined the Container Visibility Project.

Improved visibility into the operations of the container shipping supply chain has been a long-held objective for industry stakeholders.

Mizzen’s ground-breaking project has put the goal within reach by giving the container shipping industry participants real-time trade lane level visibility of short run cargo demand and the supply of shipping capacity and empty equipment availability to service that demand.

Jon Charles, Managing Director – Mizzen Group, said, “1-Stop is a supply chain innovator. Their applications have for many years been optimising operations within the Port Community. With them joining our project, we are able to add new capabilities and turn data into useful insights for the industry as a whole. Our objective is to bring better market transparency.”

This has been made possible by utilising the expertise and experiences of academic partners. Mizzen partnered with the University of Technology Sydney’s Department of Computer Science and Centre for Artificial Intelligence under the Federal Government APR Intern grant scheme. The work is led by Associate Professor Farookh Khadeer Hussain and PhD candidate Ayesha Ubaid.  

Associate Professor, Farookh Khadeer Hussain said “The first part of the project is modelling the relationship between historic weekly container volume, shipping capacity and price in the Asia-Australia trade lane. From this, we have used machine learning to build a price prediction model.

“This allows us to calculate the opportunity cost to the industry of current pricing decisions and practices from determining the optimal freight rate price given actual supply and demand for a given week.

“The first stage of the research has quantified statistically what we understand to be known anecdotally – that under the current pricing approach with a freight rate set with a date validity, there is a material disconnect to price, supply and demand.”

Jon Charles added, “It’s a natural consequence of an uninformed market – with material opportunity cost to shipping lines and their customers – and that’s what Mizzen has set out to address.

The platform will allow shipping lines and their customers to make better informed pricing and procurement decisions, and by working with 1-Stop and the rich, real-time data they generate, unlocks the full potential of the UTS modelling capability.”

Jeremy Chee, GM – Strategy and Business Development at 1-Stop said “Joining innovative projects such as this one with Mizzen and UTS, helps us discover what can be achieved with the data we hold. Ever since our inception, 1-Stop has helped streamline and enhance productivity in the Port Community with real-time data, and now we have an opportunity to take this to the next level through differing applications and newer technology, such as Machine Learning”.

By showing the actual shipping capacity in the trade for the preceding six weeks and a forecast of the cargo demand for it, the container visibility project can provide a composite picture that makes for better freight decisions.

• ​As a carrier you can make better-informed pricing decisions
• As a freight-forwarder or a Beneficial Cargo Owner (BCO) customer, you will see well in advance the periods where the greater risk lies. Not getting space or being rolled. You can, therefore, choose to take a ‘guaranteed product’ to bring certainty and to manage supply chain risk.

​Aside from allowing the industry players – shipping lines and their customers – to make better economic decisions, crucially it will also support the uptake of new digital vessel voyage specific rate products, such as the recently launched Maersk Spot and NYSHEX.

It’s an exciting new breakthrough for Mizzen and a logical adjunct to our core business, digital rate management and dynamic pricing software.

Supporting the notion of the right cargo to the right vessel at the right price.

About Mizzen

Mizzen Group is a digital pricing and rate management solution. The Mizzen team combines cutting edge digital capability married with shipping industry understanding. The Company delivers software for freight sellers, shipping lines and freight forwarders to set and distribute prices dynamically and in new ways to their customers in the digital channel. This enables them to deliver new products with a range of value attributes to better serve their customers’ needs and their own guided by data. The company also operates Mizzenit, a business-to-business digital rate platform for the container shipping industry.