MaerskĀ has announced thatĀ TradeLens, the joint blockchain initiative for international shipping with IBM is closing.Ā Launched in 2018, many believed that Maersk would not be able to attract other container shipping firms, butĀ MSC and CMA-CGMĀ joined in 2019.
āTradeLens has not reached the level of commercial viability necessary to continue work and meet the financial expectations as an independent business,ā said Rotem Hershko Head of Business Platforms at A.P. Moller ā Maersk.
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āUnfortunately, while we successfully developed a viable platform, the need for full global industry collaboration has not been achieved.ā
While TradeLens signed numerous shippers and hundreds of ports, carriers and customs clearance organizations, that doesnāt mean they all used it extensively. For example, last year MSC launched its ownĀ electronic bill of lading (eBL) offering, partnering with blockchain startup WaveBL, which appears to have beenĀ very successful.
TradeLens was one of the first big supply chain blockchain initiatives. But other early enterprise blockchain initiatives have also shuttered this year. They include another early IBM project,Ā we.tradeĀ for trade finance and theĀ B3iĀ blockchain insurance consortium.
When TradeLens started, multiple industries envisioned creating large multi-functional blockchains for an entire industry. Now the belief is the need to develop interoperability between multiple blockchain infrastructures, which are often specialist, such as for bills of lading or trade finance.Ā
Thereās no shortage of other blockchain shipping initiatives. For example, in Asia, thereās Hong Kong-basedĀ GSBN, JapanāsĀ TradeWaltz, and Thailandās recently launchedĀ National Digital Trade PlatformĀ (NDTP).
TradeLens made numerous management changes in the last year. It hired a new CTO just over a year ago and CEO Kim Spalding joined eight months ago from Google. She replaced Mike White, the founding TradeLens leader and Maersk senior executive who retired earlier this year.
To date, the network processed almost 36 million documents and nearly 70 million containers. The network will go offline at the end of Q1 2023.
More to follow.
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