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Maersk Lines and IBM have created a joint venture aimed at providing the container shipping industry with a blockchain "pipeline" where other carriers, terminals, freight forwarders, railroads,and others submit cargo movement information to provide shippers with an end-to-end record. The independent
company stems from a project that the worlds largest global container line and largest information technology company in the world announced 10 months ago to deploy blockchain technology to digitalize the complex paper trail involved in the global supply chain. IBM and Maersk estimate the initiatives could save the industry billions of dollars.Maersk expects to launch the first two elements of the project a shipping information pipeline offering end-to-end supply chain visibility and a so-called paper less trade system that will digitize and automate paperwork filings by the end of September. The pipeline effort will fokus on building corridors on the top trades:Asia-Europe, trans-Pacific, and trans-Atlantic. To make it work, however, Maersk will need to secure the suport of supply chain participants cross the spectrum, as users of the system and providers of information about cargo as it moves along the supply chain. That is one reason the carrier opted to create a new "neutral" company to create and operate the portal that will be independent and be guided by an advisory board. Maersk and IBMs announcement comes as shippers and logistics companies across the industry are increasingly asking for better ways to track cargo moving around the Word to help remove inefficiencies from the system and improve preparation and resource allocation for the cargos arrival at different stops on the supply chain. A growing number of these initiatives involve blockchain, the technology behind the digital currency bitcoin, due to its transparency and potential for creating a secure supply chain ecosystem. Blockchain shares a digital ledger across a network of computers without need for a central authority such as a bank. Under the concept, the record of transactions cannot be tampered with and provide
a new level of accountability to partie within the supply chain. So far, however,no major use of the technology in shipping has come to fruition, and most logistics projects are in the pilot stage. Maersks proposal potentially has a far more sweeping impact on the industry. The carrier says the two main
functions the "shipping information pipeline" and the move to digitize and automate the supply chain will provide "greater transparency, security, efficiency and simplicity to a shipping ecosystem that is massive in scale." The two companies, which are already testing the portal, expect to have a new beta
version ready for testing by the end of March. Michael White, head of global trade digitization for Maersk Group, said the portal will provide "end-to-end supply chain visibility" that will offer a "seamless exchange of shipping information" to shippers, terminals, carriers, and logistics providers from across the industry. The cost of participating partie to access the pipeline has not yet been set. White said the carrier concluded that it needed to create a separate company to provide a neutral platform that other carriers and logistics companies across the spectrum would feel comfortable using and inputting information into. That structure will protect data privacy and include an independent advisory board led by Vincent Clerc, chief commercial officer for Maersk. "If we are really going to help drive digitization in our industry, we have to try different models," said White, CEO of the New company, who stepped down as president of Maersk Line North America In October. The system will reduce the cost of administering cargo movement, cut fraud, and reduce administration costs by cutting out paper inefficiencies, White said, adding that "the cost of paperwork is often more than the cost of transportation." Since Maersk and IBM began working on the project, several companies have been participating In its testing, the carrier said. Among them were DuPont, Dow Chemical, Tetra
Pak, Port Houston, Rotterdam Port Community System Portbase, the Customs Administration of the Netherlands,and US Customs and Border Protection. Companies and agencies that have shown an interest in using the product as it goes forward include Procter and Gamble, freight forwarder and logistic company Agility Logistics, and Peruvian Customs, Maersk said. A link to the Guangdong Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, connecting to its Global Quality Traceability System,
will link users to important trade corridors in and out of China, the carrier said. White said that the work completed by the two companies so far showed that they had been correct in their initial hypotheses: that there were inefficiencies in the system due to information being "silo-ed" held in one part of the chain and not accessible to others and that information sharing along the chain was poor. Maersk has said in the past that its analyses have shown that shippers sending cargo around the world had to interact with 28 different entities among them customs, terminals, shipping lines, and forwarders and that without digitalization the process could generate a stack of paper two inches thick. Other blockchain initiatives underway include Chinese retailer JD.coms system for tracking its products; the Port of Antwerp digitization of paperwork generated moving containers; Hong Kong-based 300Cubits Has created a blockchain-based currency for use in shipping transactions; and a
memorandum of understanding signed by carrier Pacific International Lines and port operator PSA International to explore blockchain technology. In September, Hyundai Merchant Marine Said
it expected soon to deploy a system using blockchain technology. "This New company marks a milestone in our strategic efforts to drive the digitization of global trade," Clerc said. "The potential
from offering a neutral, open digital platform for safe and easy ways of exchanging information is huge, and All players across the supply chain stand to benefit.