MAERSK: BETTING ON BLOCKCHAIN

GROUP 5: Afraz Khan

Harshit Srivastava
Jayant Singhal
Kshitij Anand
Shivangi Pandey
 Mearsk being the leader in the shipping industry with about 19% market
share in 2018, realised that there was loophole in the whole supply chain.
Inefficient paper-based processes abound throughout the sector.
Companies have limited visibility into how commodities were progressing
through the supply chain. Communication between companies was
frequently difficult and costly. Transporting a cargo container came with
unexpectedly hefty administrative fees.
Maersk had teamed up with IBM to develop a new global trade
digitalization(GTD) platform that would serve as a service to the industry
and eliminate trade barriers. For this Blockchain was supposed to be the
best way out.
Because it stores information on an immutable ledger that can only be
accessed by permissioned network members, blockchain is excellent for
providing that information. Orders, payments, accounts, production, and
much more may all be tracked with a blockchain network.
 The global trade digitization platform
would offer businesses a secure digital
option for exchanging digital
documents while also increasing
supply chain visibility.
 As we can see from the attached exibit,
GTD removes the complexities in the
supply chain by removing paper based
processes and administration delays as
all the vendors involved could directly
access all the information needed on
one portal this would save huge costs
and most importantly time.
 Every player in the maritime
ecosystem, including freight
forwarders, ports, shippers, customs
officials, and competing shipping lines,
would have access to the platform.
Today, blockchain provides a level of security that is far greater than
that of traditional documents.
Maersk's senior management decided to form a joint venture with
IBM after assessing their possibilities. Maersk would own 51 percent
of the joint venture after regulatory permission and the company was
officially constituted, with IBM controlling the other 49 percent. By
May 2018, Maersk executives expected regulatory approval.
Challenges: Even if there are no operational ties to Maersk, some of
Maersk Line's competitors may be concerned about sharing their data
with a company linked with Maersk. Also another problem with this
Joint Venture to develop blockchain was what if there there is better
option, this would be a huge investment for vendors.