TradeLens enters St. Petersburg

Photo: Pixabay

The blockchain-enabled digital platform co-created by Maersk Global Trade Digitisation and IBM is being piloted in the Port of St. Petersburg after the Russian Ministry of Transport gave it a green light.

TradeLens has been set up to provide the global supply chain with a digitised flow of container documentation. "The platform aims to significantly facilitate the interaction between shippers and various regulatory and administrative bodies in the country, ultimately increasing the speed of cargo clearance and movement of goods across borders," a press release from Maersk reads.

According to the carrier, more than 100 participants are already involved in the platform, which processes over 10m discrete shipping events and thousands of documents each week. Since TradeLens is based on the blockchain technology, each party has the same view of the transactions.

"TradeLens offers unprecedented benefits to all parties involved in the transportation process by bringing full transparency of cargo moves, while enabling seamless, secure sharing of real-time actionable supply chain information to all involved participants. The TradeLens platform fosters collaboration and trust while improving user experience and lowering costs through digitisation," Mike White, CEO and Head of TradeLens, Maersk Global Trade Digitisation, commented.

Yuriy Tsvetkov, Deputy Transport Minister and Head of Federal Maritime and River Transport Agency, added, "The main result of the implementation of TradeLens, according to our expectations, should be an increase in the transparency of the contracting procedure by distributing information about supply and demand, conditions and operations between many participants of the transport and logistics processes."