AICT becomes Pakistan's first to directly integrate with TradeLens

July 21, 2021: Al-Hamd International Container Terminal (AICT), one of Pakistan’s important container terminals in Karachi, has become the first inland depot operator in Pakistan to join TradeLens, a blockchain-powered digital container logistics platform.

AICT is also the first network partner for TradeLens in Pakistan, thus leading the digitization journey of Pakistan’s container logistics and supply chain ecosystem.

TradeLens brings together data from the entire global supply chain ecosystem. This data allows TradeLens and its network partners to modernize manual and paper-based documents by replacing them with blockchain-enabled digital solutions.

AICT, located in Pakistan’s biggest industrial zone (S.I.T.E), is a well-connected container terminal in Karachi responsible for 70 percent of off-dock trade taking place through the port. Customers moving import and export cargo through AICT will be able to make full use of the solutions provided on the TradeLens platform such as Electronic Bill of Lading (eBL) and TradeLens products that offer true end-to-end visibility in addition to digital documentation.

Ahsan Sarwar executive director, AICT, said, “Our motto at AICT is ‘Logistics through innovation, dedication, and technology. Joining TradeLens is a step in the right direction for us in moving closer to our vision of leading the digital change in Pakistan’s logistics ecosystem.”

“We strongly believe that this will be a game-changer for our customers, opening opportunities for them to take critical decisions that will help them save cost and manage supply chains with most accuracy,” he added.

Thomas Sproat, head of network development, GTD Solution, and the TradeLens Platform, said, “With the TradeLens platform, we are providing transit visibility across permissioned stakeholders through the journey of the cargo from origin to destination as well as safe and secure digital documentation. AICT has taken the first step and as more carriers, ports, customs authorities, shippers, and other logistics partners join this journey, we will be able to strengthen digitization and transform the way we do logistics globally.”

TradeLens is a neutral platform which utilizes data from shippers and cargo owners, 3PLs and freight forwarders, intermodal operators, customs and government authorities, ports and terminals, and several ocean carriers. This data along with digital documentation helps all the stakeholders in the supply chain with in-depth visibility for taking informed decisions and move towards highly efficient process that are no more manual, paper-based.

Aruna Hussain, managing director, Maersk Pakistan, said, “AICT joining TradeLens is a great development towards digitizing logistics in Pakistan. As more and more partners join the network, the whole logistics ecosystem will start transforming into an efficient system that will benefit everyone involved. TradeLens can play a game-changing role for the country and has the potential to be an integral part of the Pakistan Single Window project. We look forward to more stakeholders in other parts of the supply chain joining the network and together work towards the digitized future of Pakistan’s logistics. Maersk is one of the largest shipping and logistics companies in Pakistan. As an initial developer of the TradeLens platform along with IBM, Maersk has also played a fundamental role in enabling the onboarding of AICT on TradeLens network.

The TradeLens ecosystem now includes more than 300 organizations – encompassing ten ocean carriers and data from more than 600 ports and terminals. TradeLens has already processed 42 million container shipments, nearly 2.2 billion events and some 20 million documents. In total, five of the top six global shipping carriers are now integrated onto the platform contributing to the digitization of documentation and automated workflows.