A Free Four-Week Freight Forecast, and the Number It Does Not Show

WiseTech Global, the company behind the CargoWise logistics software, launched the Ocean Freight Risk Outlook on 17 September. It is a free dashboard that looks four weeks ahead at ocean freight capacity on three main trades: Asia to North America, Asia to Europe, and Europe to North America. It is updated monthly and gives risk scores for capacity, reliability and carrier risk. The idea is to show where space will get tight before it shows up in bookings or prices.

How it works, as far as WiseTech says. It compares expected cargo demand with planned carrier capacity, using combined supply chain data and WiseTech's analysis of the work that flows through CargoWise, a system used mainly by freight forwarders. The first edition said risk will stay high on Asia to North America and Asia to Europe, with falling schedule reliability as the main worry.

What is missing. There is no published accuracy figure: no record of how often past forecasts would have been right. The method is not described, and WiseTech does not call it AI in its announcement. The data comes mostly from the forwarder side, not from shipowners or operators. And the free version is a summary of an eight-week outlook that paying CargoWise customers buy, so it is also a door to a sale.

Why we still cover it. In August we reported on a review of 28 research studies on machine learning for freight forecasting. The conclusion was that these tools get better at the predictable part of the market and stay blind to sudden shocks. A four-week view is exactly where that matters. It will probably do well in a calm month and miss the next canal closure or strike. That is not a reason to ignore it. It is a reason to treat it as one input, not the answer.

For owners and ship managers. Charterers and their forwarders will start bringing dashboards like this into negotiations. Whenever a forecast is used against you, ask two questions: how often was it right last year, and whose data is inside it? [Digital Ship · The Loadstar · AiatSea, 16 August]

This story is part of the Maritime AI Digest of 27 September 2026.