CMA CGM, MSC to Become Members of TradeLens Blockchain Platform

Container shipping giants CMA CGM and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) unveiled their decision to join TradeLens, a blockchain-enabled digital shipping platform, jointly developed by A.P. Moller – Maersk and IBM.

With CMA CGM, MSC, Maersk, and other carriers committed to the platform, data for nearly half of the world’s ocean container cargo will be available on TradeLens.

As explained, the addition of the two carriers will provide a significant boost to the TradeLens vision of greater trust, transparency, and collaboration across supply chains to help promote global trade. The companies will promote TradeLens and create complementary services on top of the platform for their clients.

“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,” Rajesh Krishnamurthy, Executive Vice President, IT & Transformations, CMA CGM Group, commented.

“TradeLens’ network is already showing that participants from across the supply chain ecosystem can derive significant value,” he added.

“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,” André Simha, Chief Digital & Information Officer, MSC, said.

“We think that the TradeLens Advisory Board, as well as standards bodies such as the Digital Container Shipping Association, will help accelerate that effort,” Simha continued.

TradeLens enables participants to connect, share information and collaborate across the shipping supply chain ecosystem. Members gain a comprehensive view of their data and can digitally collaborate as cargo moves around the world, helping create a transparent, secured, immutable record of transactions.

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 transportation 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, according to Maersk.

“More than a hundred participants have put their trust in the TradeLens network and are gaining greater transparency and simplicity in the movement of goods. Together we are advancing a shared aim to modernize the world’s trading ecosystems,” Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, Global Industries, Clients, Platforms & Blockchain, IBM, pointed out.

CMA CGM and MSC will operate a blockchain node, participate in consensus to validate transactions, host data, and assume the critical role of acting as trust anchors, or validators, for the network. The two companies will be on the TradeLens Advisory Board which will include members across the supply chain to advise on standards for neutrality and openness.