What happened: Global Container Terminals will deploy the IBM-Maersk TradeLens platform at its four North American terminals
Why it matters: A blockchain-backed system has the potential to save the shipping industry billions, according to a 2018 report
One of Vancouver’s biggest terminal operators is joining up with a blockchain-backed supply chain platform that aims to drastically reduce inefficiencies in the marine shipping industry.
Global Container Terminals Inc. (GCT) announced Thursday (October 17) it will deploy the TradeLens platform across its operations at different ports throughout North America.
“As competition increases from other ports and customer demands intensify, we need to activate every solution to increase cargo velocity through our terminals and improve performance,” GCT president and CEO Doron Grosman said in a statement.
“Joining a technology platform like TradeLens only adds to our capability to deliver best-in-class service and visibility to our supply chain partners.”
IBM Corp. and shipping giant A.P. Moller–Maersk Group (Maersk) unveiled the TradeLens joint venture in early 2018 in a push for more efficient information sharing among industry players.
While the joint venture has since been modified, the platform itself has added more than 100 partners, including carriers, ports and terminal operators.
Some may be skeptical about blockchain’s association with volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but the technology itself is sound.
Blockchain acts as an expanding list of records – or blocks – that are linked through cryptography, essentially serving as a secure electronic ledger that cannot be manipulated by a third party.
Applied to the container shipping industry, blockchain technology could eliminate millions of pages of paper documents, track containers more efficiently and reduce related costs.
A 2018 report from the research arm of global logistics firm DHL estimated the technology could result in “billions of dollars in savings” by reducing delays and fraud through more efficient tracking of tens of millions of shipping containers annually.
The current plan is to roll out the TradeLens platform in phases at GCT’s four North American terminals.
In addition to operating GCT Vanterm and GCT Deltaport, the company also operates GCT Bayonne in New Jersey and GCT New York.
