Thailand’s Customs Department intends to use IBM’s Tradelens blockchain solution to track shipping in Thai ports. According to an announcement published on Aug. 28 on the Thai Customs Department’s official website, the country plans to use Tradelens, a blockchain logistics system. Local news outlet Bangkok Post reported the next day that the platform is expected to streamline operations by managing shipment tracking and information sharing. Thailand’s push for innovation The Tradelens platform is the joint project of transport giant AP Moller-Maersk and IBM. The decision to adopt it in the country is reportedly part of a broader Thailand 4.0 modernization …
Hong Kong’s flagship airline Cathay Pacific has introduced the first blockchain project to manage unit load devices (ULDs). Cathay plans to roll out the tech across the entire network The new project intends to eliminate paper-based processes by implementing a blockchain application that allows to instantly manage ULDs through a smartphone, according to a report by air cargo publication Air Cargo News on Aug. 1. Cathay, a founding member of major global aviation alliance Oneworld, reportedly launched its blockchain ULD project in July, targeting first transactions in Hong Kong and selected locations in the United States on the initial stage. …
A group of German logistics firms have partnered to create a joint blockchain tracking platform. Local news outlet Tiroler Tageszeitung reported the story on July 16. Per the report, logistics firms LKW Walter, GS1 Austria, and its EDITEL Austria subsidiary Bundesvereinigung Logistik Österreich, Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Schenker, and WU Vienna are participating in the project. Furthermore, big four auditing firm EY is managing the initiative. The system will reportedly see freight documents being digitized on the blockchain with the aim of reducing costs and resource consumption while ensuring higher transparency standards, and protect against counterfeiting. The project will be …
Maritime shipping firms Ocean Network Express and Hapag-Lloyd have joined blockchain tracking platform TradeLens, financial news outlet The Wall Street Journal reports on July 2. The Japan-based Ocean Network Express and Germany-based Hapag-Lloyd will join the TradeLens platform launched by Danish logistics conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk and tech behemoth IBM. As Cointelegraph reported at the time, the world's second-largest shipping company Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) and fourth-largest container shipping firm CMA CGM, have joined blockchain shipping platform TradeLens in May. The platform aims to reduce paperwork and associated costs and time in the logistics industry — which reportedly accounts for $4 …
Russian authorities have signed an agreement with Danish logistics giant Maersk to officially launch blockchain shipping platform TradeLens, according to a press release on June 6. As a part of the agreement, the port at Russia’s second-biggest city, St. Petersburg, will pilot the blockchain-powered logistics tool co-developed by Maersk’s tech subsidiary Maersk GTD and global tech giant IBM. The agreement was signed in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Maersk CEO Søren Skou and Yuriy Tsvetkov, Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation and Head of the Federal Marine and River Transport Agency, the press release …
Swiss forwarding and logistics services company Panalpina has started blockchain pilot projects aimed at optimizing of supply chains, according to a press release on June 11. After joining the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA) in May, Panalpina — one of the world’s largest transport and logistics companies, with consolidated profit of $76.3 million in 2018 — has launched two blockchain pilots in the air and ocean freight field with selected customers. One of the projects will investigate blockchain applications in high-tech industrial goods, and the other will deal with office supplies. Panalpina thus aims to digitize trade documents, store them …
Singapore-based blockchain firm PLMP Fintech will participate in a multi-million logistics project in partnership with the government of Indonesia, according to a press release on May 29. The new initiative is made in partnership with the Ministry of Trade of Indonesia and intends to transform the country’s shipping industry starting from the Riau Province, which is located on one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. The project is a result of a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between PLMP Fintech and major industry-related entities in the Indonesian city of Batam, the largest city in the Riau Islands. The MoU …
Two leading global shipping firms, Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) and CMA CGM, have joined blockchain shipping platform TradeLens, Reuters reports on May 28. Switzerland-based MSC, the world's second-largest shipping company, and French CMA CGM, reportedly the fourth-largest container shipping firm, have joined the blockchain platform developed by the world’s largest logistics company Maersk and tech giant IBM. As previously reported, blockchain-powered shipping solution TradeLens intends to reduce paperwork and associated costs and time in the logistics industry — which reportedly accounts for $4 trillion — with over 80% of the goods carried by the ocean shipping sector. According to Reuters, …
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has teamed up with over 100 global supply chain and logistics leaders to standardize blockchain apps in the industry, the organization announced on May 1. The WEF, a Switzerland-based organization whose motto is commitment to “improving the state of the world,” has announced a new project called “Redesigning Trust: Blockchain for Supply Chains.” The project aims to form a broad multi-stakeholder community to co-develop interoperable blockchain applications in the logistics industry and to leverage an open-source toolkit to deploy blockchain responsibly, eliminating the hype around the technology. According to the press release, over 20 governments, …
Blockchain will be one of the technologies local Chinese authorities will leverage in an overhaul of local transport infrastructure, a government bulletin reported on March 25. New plans recently approved reference blockchain, in addition to other disruptive tools such as big data and the Internet of Things (IoT), as being useful for implementation in the Jiangsu Province, north of Shanghai. A multi-year project called the “Implementation Plan for the Promotion of Transportation Infrastructure Development” aims to update both passenger and freight networks to reduce pollution and increase efficiency. According to the bulletin, blockchain will feature in the area of logistics …
Major American postal carrier UPS and e-commerce technology company Inxeption have jointly rolled out a blockchain-powered platform to improve merchant supply chains. The development was announced in a press release published on March 21. The new blockchain platform dubbed Inxeption Zippy is designed to help companies list, market and distribute their products to customers. The platform purportedly enables merchants to monitor the entire supply chain from product listing to delivery, ensuring that sensitive data like contract-specific pricing and rates are only accessible to the buyer and seller. By using the platform, merchants will purportedly be able to upload product information, …
The Singapore government will press ahead with a pilot of its blockchain-based maritime trade platform TradeTrust through an official partnership, trade news outlet Asia Middle East Maritime Focus reported on March 7. TradeTrust, which aims to leverage blockchain to streamline complex manual processes involved in international shipping, will first focus on blockchain-powered electronic bills of lading (EB-Ls). Processing the essential trade document can often incur long time spans and considerable extra costs using paper-based methods. The pilot follows a January Memorandum of Understanding signed by Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Maritime Port Authority, Singapore Customs and the Singapore Shipping …