Mining firm Vale and its partners completed its first iron sale over blockchain.

According to a statement on its website, Vale sold 176,000 tons of iron ore to Nanjing Iron & Steel, sending the material from Malaysia to China.

Vale
and its partners used the blockchain platform Contour to issue a letter
of credit. Shipping documents and an electronic bill of lading—a list
of all the goods shipped—were handled through essDOC’s CargoDocs
solution. 

The company said it ensured end-to-end security in the
transaction with the real-time visibility to the stakeholder
documentation available on blockchain technology. Vale noted using
blockchain drastically reduced emails and paperwork the parties had to
exchange. 

“It is an important milestone towards the
digitalisation of the sales and trade process,  bringing innovation to
the traditional paper-intensive trade transactions and offering a better
service to the clients as well as predictability in the steel value
chain,” the company said in the statement.

Mining giants have been looking to use blockchain to ease shipping inefficiencies. The BHP Group announced in May it hoped to complete its first blockchain iron ore sale
with Baosteel. The company has long been interested in the technology
and has done a pilot test with Japanese shipping firm NYK to verify
sustainable biofuels.

source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/vale-completes-iron-ore-transaction-through-blockchain