Shipping giants join blockchain initiative

CMA CGM and MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company are joining TradeLens, the blockchain-enabled digital shipping platform, jointly developed by Maersk and IBM.

It means that almost half of the world’s ocean container cargo will be available on TradeLens, which enables participants to connect, share information and collaborate securely across the shipping supply chain.

Blockchain establishes a shared, immutable record of all the transactions that take place within a network and enables permissioned parties access to trusted data in real time.

With more than 100 participants on the platform today, TradeLens is already processing over ten million discrete shipping events and thousands of documents each week, providing shippers, carriers, freight forwarders, customs officials, port authorities, inland transport providers, and others a common view of transactions, which can build trust. A commitment to data ownership rights and permissioned access to data helps ensure privacy and confidentiality while enabling users to collaborate more efficiently with real-time access to shipping data.

“Digitization is a cornerstone of the CMA CGM Group’s strategy to provide an end-to-end offer tailored to our customers’ needs. We believe that TradeLens, with its commitment to open standards and open governance, is a key platform to help usher in this digital transformation,” said Rajesh Krishnamurthy, executive vice president, IT & transformations, CMA CGM Group.

André Simha, chief digital & information officer at MSC, said: “Digital collaboration is a key to the evolution of the container shipping industry. The TradeLens platform has enormous potential to spur the industry to digitize the supply chain and build collaboration around common standards.”