Maritime shipping companies Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Hapag-Lloyd have joined blockchain-enabled digital shipping platform TradeLens, which was jointly developed by their container shipping rival Maersk and tech giant IBM.
Hapag-Lloyd and ONE, the world’s fifth and sixth largest carriers by capacity, respectively, will join CMA CGM and MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, the world’s second and fourth largest carriers, who recently signed up for the TradeLens platform in May.
Maersk says with the addition the carriers, more than half of the world’s ocean containerized cargo is now covered on the platform.
“Expanding digital collaboration is critical to the evolution of the container shipping industry,” said Martin Gnass, Managing Director Information Technology at Hapag-Lloyd.
“TradeLens has made significant progress in launching a much-needed transformation in the industry, including its partnership model. Now, with five of the world’s six largest carriers committed to the platform, not to mention many other ecosystem participants, we can collectively accelerate that transformation to provide greater trust, transparency and collaboration across supply chains and help promote global trade,” Gnass added.
The addition of these two global carriers will help drive further adoption of TradeLens around the world now that TradeLens customers have access to major carriers in all three leading global vessel sharing alliances on the platform.
With an already significant presence in Asia, ONE is further strengthening and expanding its coverage through joint cooperation with TradeLens to help meet the challenging demands of the crucial Asia market.
“We believe this innovative approach based on open standards and open governance can benefit the entire industry while ultimately benefiting our customers who rely on the world’s shipping industry to transport global container volume of more than 120 million TEU across international borders each year,” said Noriaki Yamaga, Managing Director, Corporate & Innovation, Ocean Network Express.
“The opportunities to drive greater innovation across the shipping supply chain are enormous and we are excited about the opportunity to provide our leadership and insight to help the platform continue to evolve,” Yamaga added.
TradeLens was launched to help modernize the world’s supply chain ecosystems. Many of the processes for transporting and trading goods are costly, in part, due to manual and paper-based systems.
Replacing these peer-to-peer and often unreliable information exchanges, the platform enables participants to digitally connect, share information and collaborate across the shipping supply chain ecosystem.