Today the Times of Oman revealed that the Port of Salalah has joined the TradeLens shipping blockchain. This follows the addition of Vietnam’s Cai Mep International Terminal (CMIT) which signed up to the platform shortly before Christmas.
CMIT is a joint venture between Maersk-owned APM Terminals, Saigon Port and Vinalines. In Oman, APM also operates the Port of Salalah and also has a minority ownership stake.
CMIT is the first Vietnamese terminal to join TradeLens, a digital platform developed by IBM and Maersk. It is one of the largest terminals in the Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port, a deep-water port located about 80km from Ho Chi Minh City. The port handles significant U.S. and EU traffic due to its deep-water capabilities. APM Terminals is also a member of the TradeLens platform.
“In the context of constantly increasing demand for high quality online services by our customers, along with the robust development of global digitalization, joining Tradelens enables immediate updates on cargo data, hence directly supporting our customers’ supply chain planning efficiency,” said Jan Bandstra, General Director of CMIT.
The TradeLens platform is digitizing the shipping industry to enable transparency for the container supply chain. It integrates with IoT devices to measure temperature, container weight and other aspects. Currently, TradeLens members represent over half of the world’s container cargo capacity. Though that doesn’t mean all of that capacity is being funnelled through TradeLens.
“When the cargo data is transparent and enabled seamless, real-time information sharing at different stages by different entities in global supply chain will increase considerable efficiency for global trade flows,” said Nguyen Xuan Ky, CMIT Deputy General Director.
Earlier this week we noted that TradeLens has a U.S. antitrust exemption to allow competing shippers to communicate about the platform.
The platform is trying to bring cargo owners, freight forwarders, rail and trucking providers, ports, terminals, ocean carriers, customs and other government authorities into a single platform to enable the seamless exchange of data.
Most recently, Jordan’s customs and Canada’s Global Container Terminals (GCT) joined the TradeLens network. Additionally, the platform boasts of five out of top six ocean carriers — Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, Singapore-based Ocean Network Express (ONE), MSC and CMA-CGM. Another big carrier is Israel’s Zim which joined TradeLens in early 2019.
Meanwhile, Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) is another blockchain consortium in the sector, which includes three of the largest five container carriers.
