Blockchain: improving the efficiency of the maritime trade supply chain

IBM and Maersk, the largest container shipping company in the world, decided in January 2018 to create an open source digitalisation platform based on blockchain, so as to improve the efficiency of the maritime trade supply chain. Today, 90% of world trade is conducted using maritime transport, which equates to 4 billion dollars of goods per year. As this supply chain is managed via a paper system, the more commercial trade develops, the more the cost and complexity of its administration also increase. Costs linked to an administrative management system should soon reach 20% of the cost of the actual physical transport. A striking example is that of the transport of avocados between Mombasa in Kenya and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, which can take up to 34 days, 14 of which are due to the time needed for the port authorities to obtain governmental authorisations. Replacing the current paper system by a digitalisation platform based on blockchain technology would therefore make it possible to reduce costs, improve efficiency, transparency, simplicity, and security, as well as reduce the barriers of the logistics chain. According to the WEF (World Economic Forum), this last point could lead to an increase in world trade of 15%, thus revitalising world economies and creating employment. Following a first successful test in March, the platform should be rolled out to all of Maersk’s activities by the end of 2018.