Shipowners Hapag-Lloyd and ONE have joined TradeLens, the blockchain-based logistics flow management platform designed by IBM and Maersk.
Jointly developed by IBM and AP Moller – Maersk, TradeLens, a blockchain-based logistics platform, is opening up to additional industrial groups.
The French group CMA CGM and the Swiss shipowner MSC have taken the plunge. More recently, the German shipowners Hapag-Lloyd and the Japanese Ocean Network Express (ONE) joined it.
Initiated in 2017, TradeLens was officially launched in 2018. The American IT group IBM and the Danish shipowner AP Moller – Maersk then had the ambition to “modernize the ecosystems of the global supply chain”.
Hapag-Lloyd and ONE
The new entrants, Hapag-Lloyd and ONE, the world’s fifth and sixth largest container shipping groups, respectively, each operate a blockchain node (the decentralized transaction management technology).
They should also actively participate in the validation of transactions and assume a role of trusted referee for TradeLens. In addition, both companies are represented on the TradeLens advisory board.
With these arrivals, the platform’s commercial reach extends “to more than half of global container shipping,” the partners said.
A way for IBM to consolidate its investments in the blockchain.
(photo credit © Shutterstock)
