The world’s second and fourth largest container shipping companies, Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) and CMA CGM respectively, will be joining market leader Maersk on a blockchain platform called TradeLens.
The development, reported today by Reuters, will see about half of all cargoes transported by sea tracked with the blockchain system, which constitutes 90% of goods traded worldwide.
CMA CGM, which is already among the members of a blockchain initiative with Asian shipping company GSBN, admitted that rival lines would all benefit from a large scale of Maersk blockchain platform.
“The fact that we are joining forces and creating a standard in the industry is much more powerful,” CMA CGM’s Chief Executive and Chairman, Rodolphe Saade, said.
Speaking on the development, Vincent Clerc, the Executive Vice President of Maersk, called MSC and CMA CGM’s efforts a game changer, adding that,
“Even today customers live with the administrative burden of having to maintain the huge amount of paperwork and not having visibility of what is happening with their goods.”
The shipping solution TradeLens, powered by blockchain, was launched by Maersk and IBM in 2018, to lessen paperwork costs and time in the logistics industry, and also help manage and track paper trails through the digitization of supply chain processes from end to end.
A significant part of the 20% average cost for paperwork of shipping a container from one end to another can be cut off at the full usage of the platform, Clerc added.
“Digital collaboration is key to the evolution of the container shipping industry,” Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at MSC, André Simha commented in a statement.
It was also reported, that over 100 firms, ports or authorities, including the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Procter & Gamble have signed up for the blockchain platform by Maersk.
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