Shipping Heavyweights Join TradeLens Platform as ‘Foundation Carriers’

Updated: November 18, 2020 (Originally published October 15, 2020)

Two of the world’s leading global container carriers MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company and CMA CGM are now fully plugged in to the TradeLens blockchain-based platform.

The TradeLens platform was jointly developed by IBM and A.P. Moller – Maersk and launched in 2018. The platform uses blockchain technology to digitize manual and paper-based systems across the supply chain. Since its launch, the platform has grown to include more than 175 organizations, including ten ocean carriers and encompassing data from more than 600 ports and terminals. Already it has tracked 30 million container shipments, 1.5 billion events and roughly 13 million published documents.

MSC and CMA CGM, the world’s number two and four carriers by TEU capacity respectively, will join as “platform foundation carriers with a role in expanding the ecosystem and platform operations, including playing key roles as validators on the blockchain network,” according to a press release from MSC.

MSC and CMA CGM began integrating the TradeLens platform into their operations in 2019.

The statement today added that the digital transformation that has taken more than a year and required considerable investment in new API capabilities. One milestone included a 15-customer pilot involving more than 3,000 unique consignments, 100,000 events and 6,000 containers to ensure the TradeLens platform distributes and shares shipment data across various supply chains with speed and accuracy.

Now that they are live on the platform, MSC and CMA CGM will begin promoting TradeLens capabilities and membership to their clients and business partners across the globe.

“Digitization is a cornerstone of the CMA CGM Group’s strategy aimed at providing an end-to-end solution tailored to our customers’ needs. An industry-wide collaboration like this is truly unprecedented. Only by working together and agreeing to a shared set of standards and goals are we able to enact the digital transformation that is now touching nearly every part of the global shipping industry,” said Marc Bourdon, CMA CGM Senior Vice President, Commercial Agencies Network.

“TradeLens is an important initiative in the digitalization of global shipping and logistics, with the potential to help carriers and their customers to increase transparency and reduce errors and delays, all at a crucial time when the industry is re-thinking and improving the resiliency of supply chains,” said Andre Simha, Global Chief Digital & Information Officer, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company. “By completing the integration, we can now begin showing our customers and business partners how they can create and see value from the platform, and we hope that many of them will join it, creating an even larger and more beneficial ecosystem.”

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