Samsung SDS, the information technology subsidiary of electronics company Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., announced today that it would be building out a major blockchain network operation to manage Korea’s shipping industry logistics.

The network would use a blockchain, a distributed cryptographically secured ledger technology, to track shipping imports, exports and location of cargo in real-time. According to the Korea Herald, the blockchain would be built in partnership with a consortium of local logistics companies, government and state-run research centers.

Consortium members include the Korea Customs Service, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Hyundai Merchant Marine and IBM Korea.

“If the pilot project is successful, it will eliminate the necessity of submitting documents to the customs such as the bill of lading,” said a spokesperson from Korea Customs Service. “We expect simplifying the customs process will speed up the flow of logistics and cut related costs.”

Blockchain ledgers have been explored by multiple industries from financial services – such as for banking and identity services – as well as supply chains for food and retail products to help reduce fraud and increase safety. This is possible because blockchains operate by incorporating and securing sequences of transactions in a manner that is extremely difficult to falsify and in a manner that future transactions secure previous from tampering.

Samsung’s interest in blockchain for shipping logistics follows a worldwide trend. In November 2016, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and IBM Corp. began looking into using a blockchain to track Walmart’s pork supply chain to aid in reducing foodborne illnesses and reduce costs. And, in March of this year, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Holding Group Ltd. and the Australia Post began implementing their own shipping logistics blockchain aimed at reducing fraud in food production and shipments.

Samsung SDS plans include an Internet of Things approach to real-time tracking of cargo containers and parcels being shipped that will allow for an automated system to record movements to the blockchain. Every time a shipment is acted upon – from truck to receipt at a distribution center, placement in storage, movement to a shipping container or anything else – a record of the event, along with meta-data describing the item’s vital stats, would be inserted into the blockchain with a timestamp.

With this approach, a blockchain applied to the entirety of the supply chain logistics, a product could be tracked from production to its ultimate delivery at a retail outlet or customer’s doorstep.

Samsung SDS believes the implementation of the blockchain ledger, coupled with the detailed recording of shipment whereabouts and information, could be used to eliminate the possibility of falsely advertising shipment contents or product data and also greatly reduce the chances of a shipment being lost or misplaced.

The plan is to apply Samsung SDS’s blockchain technology pilot project across the logistics process for all exports and imports by the end of 2017.

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