COPENHAGEN, Denmark and
ARMONK, New York, Jan.
16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A.P. Moller –Maersk
(MAERSKb.CO) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced their intent to
establish a joint venture to provide more efficient and secure
methods for conducting global trade using blockchain
technology.
The aim of the new company will be to offer a jointly developed
global trade digitization platform built on open standards and
designed for use by the entire global shipping ecosystem. It will
address the need to provide more transparency and simplicity in the
movement of goods across borders and trading zones.
The cost and size of the world's trading ecosystems continues to
grow in complexity. More than $4
trillion in goods are shipped each year, and more than 80
percent of the goods consumers use daily are carried by the ocean
shipping industry. The maximum cost of the required trade
documentation to process and administer many of these goods is
estimated to reach one-fifth of the actual physical transportation
costs. According to The World Economic Forum, by reducing barriers
within the international supply chain, global trade could increase
by nearly 15 percent, boosting economies and creating jobs.
The attributes of blockchain technology are ideally suited to
large networks of disparate partners. A distributed ledger
technology, blockchain establishes a shared, immutable record of
all the transactions that take place within a network and then
enables permissioned parties access to trusted data in real time.
By applying the technology to digitize global trade processes, a
new form of command and consent can be introduced into the flow of
information, empowering multiple trading partners to collaborate
and establishing a single shared view of a transaction without
compromising details, privacy or confidentiality.
Maersk, a global leader in container logistics, and IBM, a
leading provider of blockchain, supply chain visibility and
interoperability solutions for the enterprise, will use blockchain
technology to power the new platform, as well as employ other
cloud-based open source technologies including artificial
intelligence (AI), IoT and analytics, delivered via IBM Services,
in order to help companies move and track goods digitally across
international borders. Manufacturers, shipping lines, freight
forwarders, port and terminal operators and customs authorities can
all benefit from these new technologies –and ultimately
consumers.
"This new company marks a milestone in our strategic efforts to
drive the digitization of global trade. The potential from offering
a neutral, open digital platform for safe and easy ways of
exchanging information is huge, and all players across the supply
chain stand to benefit," said Vincent
Clerc, chief commercial officer at Maersk and future
chairman of the board of the new joint venture. "By joining our
knowledge of trade with IBM's capabilities in blockchain and
enterprise technology, we are confident this new company can make a
real difference in shaping the future of global trade."
IBM's blockchain platform is enabling hundreds of clients and
thousands of developers to build and scale active networks across
complex use cases, including cross border payments, supply chains,
and digital identification.
"The major advances IBM has made in blockchain have shown that
the technology can foster new business models and play an important
role in how the world works by building smarter businesses," said
Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice
president, IBM Global Industries, Solutions and Blockchain. "Our
joint venture with Maersk means we can now speed adoption of this
exciting technology with the millions of organizations who play
vital roles in one of the most complex and important networks in
the world, the global supply chain. We believe blockchain will now
emerge in this market as the leading way companies seize new
untapped economic opportunities."
IBM and Maersk began a collaboration in June 2016 to build new blockchain- and
cloud-based technologies. Since then, multiple parties have piloted
the platform including DuPont, Dow Chemical, Tetra Pak,
Port Houston, Rotterdam Port
Community System Portbase, the Customs Administration of
the Netherlands, U.S. Customs and
Border Protection.
The joint venture will now enable IBM and Maersk to
commercialize and scale their solutions to a broader group of
global corporations, many of whom have already expressed interest
in the capabilities and are exploring ways to use the new platform,
including: General Motors and Procter and Gamble to streamline the
complex supply chains they operate; and freight forwarder and
logistic company, Agility Logistics, to provide improved customer
services including customs clearance brokerage.
Additional customs and government authorities, including
Singapore Customs and Peruvian Customs, will explore collaborating
with the platform to facilitate trade flows and enhance supply
chain security. The global terminal operators APM Terminals and PSA
International will use the platform to enrich port collaboration
and improve terminal planning. With support from Guangdong
Inspection and Quarantine Bureau by connecting to its Global
Quality Traceability System for import and export goods, the
platform can also link users to important trade corridors in and
out of China.
To address the specific needs of the industry, Maersk and IBM
are establishing an advisory board of industry experts to help
further shape the platform and services, provide guidance and
feedback on important industry factors, and drive open
standards.
Maersk and IBM have named Michael J. White, former
president of Maersk Line in North
America, as CEO of the new company. He commented, "Today, a
vast amount of resources are wasted due to inefficient and
error-prone manual processes. The pilots confirmed our expectations
that, across the industry, there is considerable demand for
efficiency gains and opportunities coming from streamlining and
standardizing information flows using digital solutions. Our
ambition is to apply these learnings to establish a fully open
platform whereby all players in the global supply chain can
participate and extract significant value. We look forward to
further expanding our ecosystem of partners as we progress toward a
global solution."
The new company initially plans to commercialize two core
capabilities aimed at digitizing the global supply chain from
end-to-end:
- A shipping information pipeline will provide end-to-end supply
chain visibility to enable all actors involved in managing a supply
chain to securely and seamlessly exchange information about
shipment events in real time.
- Paperless Trade will digitize and automate paperwork filings
by enabling end-users to securely submit, validate and approve
documents across organizational boundaries, ultimately helping to
reduce the time and cost for clearance and cargo movement.
Blockchain-based smart contracts ensure all required approvals are
in place, helping speed up approvals and reducing mistakes.
Upon regulatory clearance, solutions from the joint venture are
expected to become available within six months.
The new company will be headquartered in the New York metropolitan area.
The platform is built on IBM Blockchain technology, which is
provided through the IBM Cloud and powered by Hyperledger Fabric
1.0, a blockchain framework and one of the Hyperledger projects
hosted by the Linux Foundation. For more information about the
joint venture visit:
www.ibm.com/blogs/blockchain/2018/01/digitizing-global-trade-maersk-ibm.
The establishment of the joint venture remains subject to
receipt of regulatory approvals. None of the information
provided in this [advisory/email/letter/presentation] should be
construed in any way as a commitment and this information is
subject to change and represents goals and objectives only.
About IBM Blockchain
IBM is recognized as the leading
enterprise blockchain provider. The company's research, technical
and business experts have broken barriers in transaction processing
speeds, developed the most advanced cryptography to secure
transactions, and are contributing millions of lines of open source
code to advance blockchain for businesses. IBM is the leader in
open-source blockchain solutions built for the enterprise. Since
2016, IBM has worked with hundreds of clients across financial
services, supply chain, government, retail, digital rights
management and healthcare to implement blockchain applications, and
operates a number of networks running live and in production. The
cloud-based IBM Blockchain Platform delivers the end-to-end
capabilities that clients need to quickly activate and successfully
develop, operate, govern and secure their own business networks.
IBM is an early member of Hyperledger, an open source collaborative
effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies.
For more information about IBM Blockchain, visit
https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/ or follow us on Twitter at
@ibmblockchain.
About Maersk
A.P. Moller - Maersk is an integrated
transport and logistics company with multiple brands and is a
global leader in container shipping and ports. Including a
stand-alone Energy division, the company employs roughly 88,000
employees across operations in 130 countries. For more information
about Maersk, visit https://maersk.com/ or follow us on Twitter at
@maersk.
Contact Information:
Hannah Slocum
IBM Communications
hslocum@us.ibm.com
+1 212-671-9974
Mikkel Elbek Linnet, Senior Press Officer – A.P. Moller-Maersk /
Mikkel.Elbek.Linnet@maersk.com / +45 33638515
Katherine Mosquera, Regional
Communications Manager North America – A.P. Moller – Maersk /
Katherine.mosquera@maersk.com / +1 (973) 514-5160
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