One commercial mission — helping shipping lines, tanker owners, bulk operators, port authorities, OILCOs, and commodity traders turn planning complexity into profitable, defensible decisions.
Optimization across container, tanker, bulk, port and network.
An optimizer is software that checks every feasible plan for your operation — and hands you the best one.
How it works
Your fleet, cargo, ports, schedules, costs and constraints go in. The optimizer checks every feasible plan a human never could — and keeps the one that earns the most.
Millions of plans — it checks every one.
plans checked0Measured impact
OptiFleet case study · 6 months
−18%
Vessel operating costs
+13%
Vessel utilization
+15%
Schedule reliability
Measured over six months in an OptiFleet deployment case study. Results reflect that specific case and are not guaranteed outcomes for every network.
The planning problem
Markets move faster than spreadsheets. Most shipping operations still run on them.
01
Multiple vessels, ports, cargoes, and contracts intersect in ways no single planner can hold in their head — let alone optimize by hand.
02
Freight rates, charter costs, and demand patterns shift week to week. Plans built on last month's assumptions are already out of date.
03
Vessels, equipment, and berths are finite assets. Every unit sitting idle or misallocated is capacity your competitors are using instead.
04
Stowage plans, schedules, and allocations still built cell by cell — slow to produce and even slower to revise when conditions change.
05
Fuel, port charges, demurrage, and empty repositioning quietly erode margin when decisions are made on instinct rather than evidence.
06
Vessels sailing under capacity, equipment sitting in the wrong port, tugs idle at the wrong berth — utilization gaps that compound across a fleet.
07
Port congestion, berth windows, and connection deadlines collide constantly, and manual re-sequencing rarely finds the best answer in time.
08
By the time a manually-built plan reaches the commercial team, the market opportunity it was built for has often already moved.
The questions you're actually asking
Most operators don't shop for "an optimizer." They walk in with a question their finance team can't answer. Each card below maps one of those questions to the product that answers it.
Vessel utilisation
Right cargo, right vessel, right voyage — every slot earning its maximum contribution. Are we leaving margin on the table by accepting low-contribution cargo?
Answered by
OptiFleet
Empty container cost
Empty repositioning sits behind bunker, terminal and charter as a cost line — and most of it is still planned regionally. One global plan vs. a dozen local ones.
Answered by
OptiBox
Responsiveness
When a port congests or a vessel slips, what does a schedule rebuild actually cost? Minutes — or three days of arguing?
Answered by
OptiFleet
Planning speed
Hours per voyage in stowage planning, compliance checks, lashing validation — how much of that is mechanical and could be automated? Containers and bulk are different problems with different engines.
Answered by
SONATA & BOPT — stowage optimizers
Stowage optimizer
Multi-port container stowage plans with full IMDG, GM, stress, lashing, and stack-load validation.
Fleet & service optimizer
Weighs every variable in your network — port rotations, fuel curves, charter rates, empty equipment, demand.
Empty container optimizer
Tracks global container imbalances, forecasts demand, and routes empties between surplus and deficit ports.
Tanker fleet optimizer
Tanker scheduling with grade-compatibility, automatic tank-cleaning insertion, TC-vs-spot optimization.
Bulk stowage planner
Pre-fixture loadability for chartering desks and automated multi-hold, multi-grade stowage plans for operations. The bulk-side counterpart to SONATA in containers.
Tug scheduling optimizer
AI-powered tug scheduling on a 6-hour rolling window — right tug, right vessel, right time. Cuts fuel burn, berth delays and emissions across the port.
Strategic network optimizer
Re-design a full global container shipping network — port sequences, vessel classes, speeds, cargo flows — in around an hour. 14M binary variables, Hexaly local search. Strategic-tier optimizer.
Decision matrix
Liner
OpenStowage, scheduling, and empty repositioning working together at fleet scale — every slot, every voyage, every box accounted for.
NVOCC
OpenMulti-carrier capacity scheduling and empty equipment balancing without owning the underlying tonnage.
Feeder
OpenFast schedule rebuilds when ports congest or vessels slip — replanning in minutes rather than days.
Oil & gas major / cargo owner
Grade-compatible TC fleet scheduling across discharge ports for cargo owners.
Bulk operator
Maximize stowage and optimize cargo allocation across bulk and oil cargoes — cutting the cycle time between cargo opportunity and vessel fixture.
Port operator / Tug owner
Right tug, right vessel, right time — 6-hour rolling schedule with IMO 2030 ESG built in.
Strategic / Alliance planning
Re-design a full global network in hours — stress-test alliances, replan under disruption, save $50M+ per decision.
| If you're a… | Run these | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Liner | SONATAOptiFleetOptiBox | Stowage, scheduling, and empty repositioning working together at fleet scale — every slot, every voyage, every box accounted for. |
| NVOCC | OptiFleetOptiBox | Multi-carrier capacity scheduling and empty equipment balancing without owning the underlying tonnage. |
| Feeder | OptiFleet | Fast schedule rebuilds when ports congest or vessels slip — replanning in minutes rather than days. |
| Liner Agency | OptiFleet | Vessel-side schedule visibility for local port ops. |
| Oil & gas major / cargo owner | OptiTanker | Grade-compatible TC fleet scheduling across discharge ports for cargo owners. |
| Bulk operator | BOPT | Maximize stowage and optimize cargo allocation across bulk and oil cargoes — cutting the cycle time between cargo opportunity and vessel fixture. |
| Port operator / Tug owner | Smart-Tug | Right tug, right vessel, right time — 6-hour rolling schedule with IMO 2030 ESG built in. |
| Strategic / Alliance planning | Network Design | Re-design a full global network in hours — stress-test alliances, replan under disruption, save $50M+ per decision. |
Frequently asked questions
Solverminds Optimizers is a portfolio of purpose-built optimization engines for maritime planning — covering stowage, fleet deployment, empty equipment, tanker and bulk scheduling, tug dispatch, and network design. Each engine can be deployed individually or connected as a suite.
Most organizations start with the single optimizer that addresses their most pressing planning bottleneck, then expand into the connected suite as the commercial impact becomes clear. Every engine is designed to stand on its own and to integrate cleanly with the others.
Generic planning tools help you record a decision. Solverminds Optimizers help you make the right one — weighing thousands of operational combinations against commercial outcomes like profitability, utilization, and reliability, in minutes.
It depends on your primary planning challenge — container stowage, fleet scheduling, tanker voyage planning, bulk cargo allocation, or port and tug operations. Use the decision matrix above, or talk to an optimization expert for a tailored recommendation.
Deployment timelines vary by optimizer and by the complexity of your existing systems and data, but Solverminds Optimizers are built for fast integration into existing fleet, ERP, and terminal systems — not multi-year transformation programs.
Yes. Each optimizer is built to integrate with existing fleet management, ERP, terminal, and commercial systems, so optimization plugs into how your organization already operates rather than replacing it.
No. The suite spans container liners, NVOCCs, feeder operators, tanker owners, bulk operators, port authorities, and tug owners of every size — the right engine is matched to the operation, not the other way around.
Every fleet, every port, and every cargo type has a different optimization challenge — and a different amount of margin sitting inside it. Let's find out where yours is.