Netherland-Based Blockchain Pilot to Help Streamline International Container Trade

By Swati Kishore

ABN AMRO Bank, Samsung SDS, and the Rotterdam Port have joined hands to launch a Blockchain project pilot that aims to streamline container-based international commerce, and hence bring more efficiency in the trade. ABN AMRO is one of the largest banks in the Netherlands, while Samsung SDS is the logistics and IT subsidiary of the South Korean multinational conglomerate.

Today, international container commerce is heavily based on paper documentation, which includes management as well as the payments. The aim of the Blockchain project is to leverage Blockchain Technology to completely eliminate paper-based documentation. As per a press release by the Port of Rotterdam Authority, the Chief Financial Officer, Paul Smits, was quoted as saying:

“An average 28 parties are involved in container transport from China to Rotterdam. The transportation, monitoring and financing of freight and services should be just as easy as ordering a book online.”

With the use of the revolutionary technology of Blockchain, the three partners aim to completely digitize the process surrounding international container trade. The CEO of Commercial Banking, ABN AMRO, Daphne de Kluis, elaborated that the launch of the Blockchain platform ‘will ensure that the logistics chain becomes more streamlined and transparent’. Hence, it would eventually save millions of euros in the long term.

The technical aspects of the initiative will be administered by Samsung SDS. The pilot project will see different Blockchains operating together in a seamless manner. Sanghun Lee, the President of Samsung SDS, illustrated:

“This takes place via an overarching ‘notary’ that connects entirely separate blockchains in Korea and the Netherlands.”

The pilot will be administered early next year, with the results to be announced just a month later.

Recently, news has been abuzz with reports of companies moving towards the deployment of Blockchain in supply chain. Just last week, we heard the partening of Port of Antwerp with a subsidiary unit of the Abu Dhabi Ports. This Blockchain pilot  also aims to ease international commerce trade.