Ocean carriers Hapag-Lloyd and Ocean Network Express (ONE) Pte. Ltd. announced they have completed integration onto the TradeLens platform, helping ensure a more timely and consistent view of logistics data for their containerized freight around the world.
TradeLens is a neutral, third-party platform launched by IBM and A.P. Moller-Maersk to help modernize the world’s supply chain ecosystems and is run on IBM Cloud and IBM Blockchain. Since the completion of multiple pilot projects, as well as the integration, Hapag-Lloyd and ONE, the world’s fifth and sixth largest carriers, respectively, are now working to help their clients and business partners across all major geographies benefit from Trade Lens’ ability to increase efficiency and improve access to information.
They join foundation carriers A.P. Moller-Maersk, as well as CMA CGM and MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), which both completed their pilots and integration in October, and five other carriers already inputting shipping data into the TradeLens platform.
In addition, TradeLens continues to rapidly on-board new organizations from across the shipping industry, recently adding shippers and importers such as Van den Ban Tires, which used the platform to address back office inefficiencies and improve the visibility of cargo, and KLog.co also became the first freight forwarder in Latin America to join TradeLens to improve efficiency, decrease operational costs and advance its goal of opening up international trade to all companies in the region.
Related Stories
“Our customers will clearly benefit from increased transparency, accuracy, speed and efficiency in their supply chains, leading to reduced cost,” Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, said.
The TradeLens ecosystem now includes more than 300 organizations encompassing 10 ocean carriers and data from more than 600 ports and terminals. Trade Lens has already processed 42 million container shipments, nearly 2.2 billion events and some 20 million documents. Five of the top six global shipping carriers are now integrated onto the platform contributing to the digitization of documentation and automated workflows.
“We believe TradeLens can bring together all parties in the supply chain to the digital ecosystem where customers can get seamless, transparent and secure sharing of shipping milestones and trade documents,” Jeremy Nixon, CEO of Ocean Network Express, said. “With its open standards and open governance, it can benefit our customers and the entire industry to drive for digitalization and automation.”
Trade Lens offers shippers and freight forwarders direct, permissioned access to digitized, multi-carrier visibility and documentation processes through a single platform, reducing the need for paper-based processes and giving participants in global trade a single, up-to-date picture of the flow of their goods.
Through the TradeLens platform, network participants can also easily connect their key supply chain partners to the digital platform, allowing data and documents to be published and consumed more quickly and only among permissioned parties.
A major barrier to global trade has long been the inability for customers to securely share crucial information regarding the status of goods in an easily accessible and transparent way.
“By addressing this problem, the TradeLens ecosystem has grown rapidly, and the onboarding of Hapag-Lloyd and ONE along with their customers helps extend the value of Trade Lens across the entire Trade Lens ecosystem, enabling connectivity to two-thirds of global containerized freight for all customers and other permissioned parties through a single platform,” Mike White, CEO of GTD Solutions and head of TradeLens, said. “All participants benefit from reduced manual processes, while also streamlining processes from automation and improved forecasting.”