China’s state-run container line Cosco Shipping will work with Alibaba and Ant Financial, on using blockchain technology to track goods across seaborne supply chains, reports The Wall Street Journal (July 8, 2020). The initiative is the latest in a string of agreements in the shipping sector aimed at connecting cargo owners, vessel operators, ports and logistics companies 
Blockchain allows trusted participants to share information as goods move through supply chains. The system promises to reduce the cost of administering shipped goods, cut down on paperwork and speed the flow of goods by letting companies transmit information quickly and reliably. Ant Financial Services runs the biggest business-oriented blockchain platform in China, processing payments and other services for as many as a billion users a day.
Denmark’s Maersk, the container shipping giant, and IBM in 2016 introduced a blockchain platform for container ships called TradeLens, which other big operators such as Switzerland’s Mediterranean Shipping, France’s CMA CGM and Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd have since joined.
It’s unclear so far whether significant freight flows have been handled through the platform. Use of the blockchain platform has waned during the coronavirus pandemic because global trade flows have fallen sharply while shipping lines have dropped hundreds of port calls, paring down and effectively simplifying many supply chains.
Large companies such as Walmart and Procter & Gamble, along with hundreds of ports, have been testing the technology to get a better view of their supply chains, from raw materials to finished goods.
Classroom discussion questions:
- Why is a firm like Walmart implementing blockchain? (Hint: See Ch. 11 in your Heizer/Render/Munson text)
- Describe how the concept of blockchain works.