Korea Commits to "Physical AI" Ports as Shanghai Ships an AI-Native Terminal OS

Two state-scale port-AI moves landed within four days of each other, and together they mark the point where smart-port competition stopped being about individual terminals and became industrial policy. Korea, 23 July: the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and Ministry of Science and ICT launched a national "Physical AI" port strategy targeting a 30% increase in port productivity by 2035 and capture of 10% of the global port equipment market — an export ambition as much as an efficiency one. Gwangyang Port becomes the testbed for fully automated terminal technology using domestic equipment; Jinhae New Port is the flagship, its phase one carrying ₩7.92trn (about $5.36bn) and opening in 2032 with nine berths, 198 autonomous cranes (36 ship-to-shore and 162 yard), 171 automated guided vehicles and an AI-based terminal operating system; Gwangyang's own development runs to ₩772.4bn ($523m), and an Ulsan pilot will extend the approach to non-container cargo. Minister Hwang Jong-Woo was explicit about the opening: "With no clear global frontrunner yet in the Physical AI port space, South Korea… has a golden opportunity to claim early leadership in technology and market share." China, 19 July, at the World AI Conference in Shanghai: Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), with subsidiary Nezha Smart Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Tongji University, unveiled a four-layer port AI architecture — a "Fenghuolun" data layer built from tens of millions of terminal operating and equipment records; a "Lotus Seat" model layer pairing large language models with port-specific small models; an agent-management layer; and, on top, AITOS, billed as China's first next-generation terminal operating system built on an AI-native architecture, with agents covering terminal planning, equipment scheduling and execution, and staff issuing natural-language instructions instead of navigating menus. The group published a white paper positioning the design as a replicable roadmap for other terminals. Why this matters for ship managers: the operator that owns the algorithm increasingly owns your berth window, and both of these programmes are explicitly built for export — the terminal-side AI stack you meet in five years may well be Korean or Chinese by default. An AI-native TOS also changes who can operate a terminal well, shifting the skill from system expertise to instruction quality. The honest caveat: Korea's figures are government targets and budget lines, not results, on timelines running to 2032 and beyond, and SIPG published no throughput, cost or productivity numbers at all for AITOS. Note too the corrective from Hamburg above: announcing an automation programme and surviving the transition are different achievements. [Smart Maritime Network · UPI · Breakbulk News]

This story is part of the Maritime AI Digest of 26 July 2026.

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