WATCH | Chinese container ship 'Zhi Fei' completes world's first end-to-end autonomous operation

China's first fully intelligent container ship Zhi Fei (MMSI: 413286730) on February 21 became the first of its kind in the world to complete an end-to-end autonomous operation at the Qingdao Port.

This comes about four years after the container feeder vessel, which has a capacity of 300 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), entered commercial service in April 2022.

According to the Qingdao Port authorities, this milestone marked a new record for China's initiatives aimed at making ports 'smarter', a Global Times report said on Tuesday.

It added that the Zhi Fei first arrived at the Qingdao Port in China's Shandong Province using fully unmanned autonomous navigation.

Once it aligned with the berth, the port's automated vacuum mooring system locked the ship in place using using suction cups in just 30 seconds, eliminating the need for manual mooring lines.

The berth's autonomous loading and offloading capabilities also ensured that there was no human involvement for the remainder of the February 21 berthing operation.

This is because right after the suction cups locked the Zhi Fei in place, the Qingdao Port's Automated Terminal Operating System (A-TOS) and Automated Equipment Control System (A-ECS) swung into action.

The A-TOS and A-ECS together 'operated' intelligent gantry cranes and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to fully unload the vessel's cargo, without any accidents. Gantry cranes are a type of cranes in which the lifting system is supported by 1-2 movable legs, and which are typically used to lift heavy objects at shipyards and construction sites.

Navigation Brilliance (BRINAV), the company that operates the Zhi Fei between the Qingdao Port and Dongjiakou, has claimed that the container ship has operated with 30 per cent fewer crew members than a conventional ship, and has also decreased the risk of human error by 80 per cent.

BRINAV added that such ships save approximately $27,500 each month in operating costs.

“Intelligent shipping is not merely about replacing human roles but also about making shipping safer and more efficient,” BRINAV chairman Jiang Haiying told Chinese media.

The company added that the Zhi Fei was the guinea pig vessel, based on which they would advance the technology for other vessels. In 2025, the vessel transported over 80,800 TEUs of cargo in 353 voyages, they said, adding that it had been able to make more than one million independent decisions since its launch.