Hapag-Lloyd and Ocean Network Express (ONE), the fifth and sixth biggest container lines by market share in the world, have joined TradeLens, Maersk and IBM’s blockchain-enabled digital supply chain platform.
This means more than half of the world’s ocean cargo will be recorded on the platform, and Maersk says it will drive further adoption around the world as customers will have access in all three of the leading global shipping alliances.
Martin Gnass, Managing Director Information Technology, Hapag-Lloyd said TradeLens provided the industry with the opportunity to collaborate and cut inefficiencies.
“Expanding digital collaboration is critical to the evolution of the container shipping industry.
“TradeLens has made significant progress in launching a much-needed transformation in the industry, including its partnership model. Now, with five of the world’s six largest carriers committed to the platform, not to mention many other ecosystem participants, we can collectively accelerate that transformation to provide greater trust, transparency and collaboration across supply chains and help promote global trade.”
A recent Port Technology technical paper looked at the formation of a global community of ports
Noriaki Yamaga, Managing Director, Corporate and Innovation, ONE, said it will allow for greater enterprise across the supply chain.
“We believe”, he said, “this innovative approach based on open standards and open governance can benefit the entire industry while ultimately benefitting our customers who rely on the world’s shipping industry to transport global container volume of more than 120 million TEU across international borders each year.”
TradeLens was launched in August 2018, a story PTI reported on at the time, to modernize the world’s supply chain and ecosystems.
Hapag-Lloyd and ONE have joined fellow major carriers MSC and CMA CGM, as well as a host of ports, supply chain stakeholders and government bodies.
Vincent Clerc, Chief Commercial Officer, Maersk, spoke of the benefits and potential of TradeLens: “The addition of more leading carriers to TradeLens will help global supply chain customers expand and explore the benefits of digitization and deliver new opportunities to the increasing number of TradeLens ecosystem participants across the global supply chain.
“As a neutral industry platform, TradeLens offers supply chain visibility, ease of documentation and the potential of introducing new products on top of the platform. These attributes bring new opportunities for the Maersk transformation towards becoming an end-to-end container logistics company improving the experience and services we offer the customers.”
