Tracing iron ore shipmentsIn 2020 alone, BHP commissioned more...

Tracing iron ore shipments

In 2020 alone, BHP commissioned more than 1,500 sea voyages to ship products and supplies around the world. However, the traditional way we transact with our customers and their banks for each commodity shipment remains paper-heavy and manual. In two separate trials, we’ve used blockchain to exchange data and documents digitally, improving efficiency and transparency and reducing bureaucracy, risk and red tape.

The trials have involved shipments of iron ore from the Pilbara region of Western Australia to our customer, China Baowu. Blockchain helped to enable a paperless exchange, which became incredibly helpful during the pandemic, when social distancing was in place and banks were closed. Blockchain was more efficient and gave the relevant parties real-time visibility of the shipment and traceability of the supply. The second trial with China Baowu, enabled foundations to report carbon emissions through the iron ore value chain, which we look forward to exploring more.