ABN AMRO launched a new pilot in partnership with the Port of Rotterdam and Samsung SDS, Samsung’s logistics and IT division. The pilot will seek to use blockchain technology to build a platform for efficient and paperless administration processes for the international finance and logistics surrounding container transport. The result should make it just as easy to transport, track and finance goods and services as it is to order a book online.
Currently payments, administration and the physical transportation of containers still take place almost entirely via separate circuits. The pilot will integrate all those separate flows.
ABN AMRO’s CEO of Commercial Banking Daphne de Kluis explains, “We will be integrating all these flows in our pilot: from workflow management combined with track & trace to the digitisation of paper documentation such as waybills and the financing of handled freight or services. The ultimate goal is to reach an open, independent and global platform that operates from the perspective of shippers. This will make the logistics chain more transparent and efficient, and millions of euros can be saved in the long term.”
The pilot, for the first time in the rather short history of this technology, will have different blockchains operating together. This takes place via an overarching ‘notary’ that connects entirely separate blockchains in Korea and the Netherlands.
The pilot involves the multi-modal transport of a container from a factory in Korea to a location in the Netherlands. In the first instance, the pilot will be implemented by the three parties, but the cooperative network will then become open for other parties to join. The pilot will be conducted in January 2019.
