Maersk has announced that TradeLens, the international shipping blockchain joint venture with IBM, is shutting down. Launched in 2018, many believed Maersk would not be able to attract other container shipping companies, but MSC and CMA-CGM joined forces in 2019.

“TradeLens has not reached the level of commercial viability necessary to continue operating and meeting financial expectations as an independent company,” said Rotem Hershko, director of trading platforms at AP Moller – Maersk.

“Unfortunately, while we have successfully developed a viable platform, the need for full global industry collaboration has not been met.”

While TradeLens signed with numerous shippers and hundreds of ports, carriers, and customs clearance organizations, that doesn’t mean they’ve all used it extensively. For example, last year MSC launched its own electronic bill of lading (eBL) offering, partnering with blockchain startup WaveBL, which appears to have been very successful.

TradeLens was one of the first big supply chain initiatives. But other initial enterprise blockchain initiatives have also closed this year. They include another early IBM project, we.trade for trade finance, and blockchain insurance consortium B3i.

When TradeLens started, various industries envisioned creating large, multi-functional blockchains for an entire industry. Now, the belief is the need to develop interoperability between multiple blockchain infrastructures, which are often specialized, such as bills of lading or trade finance.

There is no shortage of other blockchain shipping initiatives. For example, in Asia, there is Hong Kong-based GSBN, Japan’s TradeWaltz, and Thailand’s recently launched National Digital Commerce Platform (NDTP).

TradeLens has made numerous management changes in the last year. It hired a new CTO a little over a year ago, and CEO Kim Spalding joined eight months ago from Google. To date, the network has processed nearly 36 million documents and nearly 70 million containers. The network will go offline at the end of the first quarter of 2023.

More to follow.