Coordinate and finance container shipments digitally
Sector: Tertiary sector · Industry: Shipping and maritime transport · Organisation: Port of Rotterdam Authority, ABN AMRO, Samsung SDS · Maturity level: Pilot
Port of Rotterdam Authority, ABN AMRO, and Samsung SDS completed an end-to-end container shipment from Korea via Rotterdam to Tilburg in 2019 using the blockchain platform Naviporta. This proof of concept linked physical tracking, cargo documentation, and trade finance seamlessly without paper. Following this milestone, the consortium partners agreed on an expanded pilot phase for international freight flows.
Documentation status
- Project status: Pilot (as of 01 October 2019) — After the successful completion of the transport, the consortium partners agreed on an extended pilot phase.
- Evidence: Evidence medium
- Editorial review: pending
Description
The Port of Rotterdam Authority demonstrated together with partners how international freight chains can be managed without postal accompanying documents. Until now, worldwide container transports have required numerous paper original documents, whose postal transit time often exceeds the sea voyage. By networking on a common platform, status updates and approvals are made immediately available to shipping companies, banks and terminals.
Within the project, the partners Port of Rotterdam Authority, ABN AMRO and Samsung SDS managed a real container transport from South Korea via the Port of Rotterdam to a warehouse in Tilburg. Through the Naviporta platform, physical transport milestones, accompanying documents and financial transactions were linked in a single workflow. As soon as the container passed defined control points, the system automatically triggered the corresponding checks and financing steps. This eliminated the time-consuming physical shipping of waybills between continents. After the successful completion of this proof of concept, the parties agreed to extend the trial to further multimodal transport routes.
Perspectives
B2B — organisations perspective
For companies, the solution offers a direct link between transport progress and payment approvals between shippers, freight forwarders and banks. This reduces administrative delays during cargo handover at the destination port and minimises counterparty risks in international trade.
Employees perspective
Employees in dispatch and trade finance are relieved of repetitive checking and data entry tasks. Instead of waiting for courier deliveries, they manage cargo approvals via a central digital system.
Benefits
General
- Accelerated processing of multimodal transport chains
- Increased transparency of transport and document status for all parties
- Elimination of delays caused by missing original documents
B2B — organisations
- Faster liquidity release in trade finance
- Lower demurrage and detention charges at terminals through early cargo release
Employees
- No more manual tracking via email and courier services
- Direct insight into approval status without media discontinuities
Challenges
General
- High integration requirements for heterogeneous IT systems of various international actors
- Requirement for uniform legal standards for digital freight documents across jurisdictions
B2B — organisations
- Need to connect banks, port authorities and logistics providers to the same platform infrastructure
Employees
- Transition of established control routines from paper-based checks to software-supported approvals
Technology foundation
The solution is based on a distributed platform architecture called Naviporta or DELIVER, which connects various participants in a data protection-compliant manner via distributed ledger concepts. Through the cryptographic anchoring of freight status and documents, banks and logisticians can collaborate with trust.
Implementation examples
Multimodal container transport from Korea to Tilburg via Naviporta
International sea transport requires extensive paper documents such as bills of lading, the late delivery of which regularly leads to storage costs and delays in cargo release at the port.
The Port of Rotterdam Authority tested a paperless container transport from Korea to Tilburg with ABN AMRO and Samsung SDS via the Naviporta platform. The project synchronised physical freight movements, document releases and financing processes.
In 2019, the partners Port of Rotterdam Authority, ABN AMRO and Samsung SDS conducted a real container transport from South Korea via the Port of Rotterdam to Tilburg. On the Naviporta platform, physical transport milestones were linked with digital freight documents and the associated financing processes. The system enabled the entire process to be handled paperlessly and cargo releases to be directly linked to transport progress. After the successful completion of the proof of concept, the organisations involved agreed on a follow-up testing phase for further development.
Eliminating administrative inefficiencies and media discontinuities between shipping company, port terminal, customs authorities and financing bank.
Tags
Container logistics, Trade finance, Supply chain, Waybill, Port logistics