# Coordinate and finance container shipments digitally

> 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.

**Sector:** Tertiary sector · **Industry:** Shipping and maritime transport · **Organisation:** Port of Rotterdam Authority, ABN AMRO, Samsung SDS · **Maturity level:** Pilot

Canonical URL: https://www.sapientblock.com/en/use-cases/port-of-rotterdam-authority-containertransporte-papierlos-koordinieren

## Documentation status

- **Project status:** Pilot
- **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.

## Benefits

- Faster liquidity release in trade finance
- Lower demurrage and detention charges at terminals through early cargo release
- Accelerated processing of multimodal transport chains
- Increased transparency of transport and document status for all parties
- Elimination of delays caused by missing original documents
- No more manual tracking via email and courier services
- Direct insight into approval status without media discontinuities

## Challenges

- Need to connect banks, port authorities and logistics providers to the same platform infrastructure
- High integration requirements for heterogeneous IT systems of various international actors
- Requirement for uniform legal standards for digital freight documents across jurisdictions
- 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.

## Sources

- [First blockchain container shipped to Rotterdam](https://www.portofrotterdam.com/en/news-and-press-releases/first-blockchain-container-shipped-rotterdam)
- [ABN AMRO, Samsung SDS and Port of Rotterdam launch container logistics blockchain pilot](https://www.portofrotterdam.com/en/news-and-press-releases/abn-amro-samsung-sds-and-port-rotterdam-authority-are-launching-container)