Danish shipping giant AP Møller-Mærsk and technology giant IBM have discontinued TradeLens, a blockchain-enabled global trading platform. The platform was launched in 2018 and aimed to bring together different parties to support information sharing, transparency and innovation throughout the industry.
The TradeLens ecosystem consisted of over 700 companies, including major ocean liners representing over two-thirds of the global market, and was integrated with leading trade finance banks in several countries to help modernize the trade finance industry.
The platform has tracked more than 55 million container shipments, 4.7 billion incidents and more than 25 million published documents.
Digital waybill
The platform was critical for shipping as only 0.1 percent of original bills of lading are digitized. With the availability of an end-to-end software-as-a-service solution via TradeLens for trade finance transactions, original bills could have moved to paperless processes for all involved, shipping industry officials say.
“TradeLens was founded on the bold vision of taking a leap in global supply chain digitization as an open and neutral industry platform. Unfortunately, while we have developed a viable platform, the need for full global industry collaboration has not been achieved. As a result, TradeLens not reached the level of commercial viability necessary to continue operations and meet financial expectations as an independent business, Maersk said.
Rotem Hershko, Head of Business Platforms at AP Møller-Maersk, said: “As of today, the TradeLens team is taking steps to withdraw the offers and decommission the platform, and the intention is for the platform to go offline by the end of quarter one, 2023. During this process, all parties involved will ensure that customers are taken care of without disruption to their business.”
“We will leverage the work of TradeLens as a springboard to further push our digitization agenda and look forward to leveraging the energy and capability of our technology talent in new ways,” said Hershko.
Blockchain in the supply chain
As part of TradeLens, over 100 organizations were involved or agreed to participate on the platform built on open standards. Globally over 20 port and terminal operators, including PSA Singapore, International Container Terminal Services Inc, Patrick Terminals, Modern Terminals in Hong Kong, Port of Halifax, Port of Rotterdam, Port of Bilbao, PortConnect, PortBase and Holt Logistics at the Port of Philadelphia was part of the solution, a 2018 release had said.
In February this year, TradeLens announced the completion of a letter of credit transacted with HSBC and Syngenta using a digital bill of lading underpinned by blockchain technology.
Agricultural chemicals were shipped from South Korea to Bangladesh using a paperless process. This demonstrated an important step in the modernization of trade finance and supply chain efficiency.
Published on December 1, 2022
