The first private Sri Lankan container terminal, SAGT or South Asia Gateway Terminals, currently joined IBM and Maersk’s blockchain trade platform TradeLens. It is the first terminal in the country to utilize blockchain technology to digitize its trade processes. In an announcement on July 16, Maersk stated that the collaboration would support SAGT to grow past slow manual paper-based documentation processes. 

Digitization for Operational Efficiency

SAGT is an essential link in leading global trade, and it yearly processes more than two million twenty-foot containers. The combination of the TradeLens platform into its operations is anticipated to help digitize documentation and streamline the information inflow from the global supply chain ecosystem. The terminal will be capable to quickly record information pertaining to shippers, shipping lines, ports, and other intermediaries included in the supply chain. By bringing more transparency into container flows, TradeLens intends to enhance operational effectiveness for the container terminal.

To that end, Bimal Kanal, Head of TradeLens, South Asia said in a statement, “Our ambition is to have all stakeholders including shippers, shipping lines, ports, banks, custom authorities and so on, involved in the global supply chain to be on a common platform that will benefit the entire industry.”

Various Major Terminal Operators have Joined TradeLens.

In just two years since its launch, TradeLens has inked deals with many of the primary container terminals and port operators across the world. As it was reported, the largest multi-port operator of India, Special Economic Zone Limited, and Adani Ports joined the TradeLens platform in May this year. In January, Oman’s most significant port Port of Salalah had joined TradeLens.  In December 2019, TradeLens also signed a deal with the significant Asian shipment terminal Cái Mép International Terminal to digitize its trade processes.