While Samsung has previously stepped into the blockchain arena with the news that it will proceed to produce its own ASIC chipsets for cryptocurrency mining, reports issued today suggest that the company is preparing to use distributed ledger technology to manage its own supply chain.

According to Bloomberg, Samsung’s SDS subsidiary is preparing to create a blockchain-based platform to track international product shipments, and reportedly expects that its new system would reduce shipping costs by as much as 20%.

SDS is expected to ship around 500,000 tons in airfreight this year alone – and that figure doesn’t take into account the estimated one million shipping containers the subsidiary is charged with managing per year.

Speaking to Bloomberg, SDS chief Song Kwang-woo quipped that the bid would have “an enormous impact on the supply chains of manufacturing industries. Blockchain is a core platform to fuel our digital transformation”.

The firm expects that the use blockchain technology will afford it the capability to reduce its dependence on expensive shipping documentation, and afford its parent with the ability to respond to market movements far more quickly.

The company’s interest in effective supply chain management is understandable – the firm presently tops the global smartphone market with a share of some 22%, and its wider portfolio of products includes not only smart devices, but appliances, software platforms, and its research wing has even trialed producing autonomous vehicles.

Blockchain for supply chain management

However, Samsung is not alone nor unique in its bid to leverage blockchain technology to empower its supply chain management processes. Earlier this year, automotive giant BMW partnered with VeChain Thor in a bid to become an industry leader in both distributed ledger technology and blockchain-powered supply chain management.

Further abroad, the United Arab Emirates recently launched its Blockchain Strategy 2021 – a bid that it expects will save federal governments some $3 billion USD per year by eliminating dependence on document operations and by further culling work by an expected 77 million man-hours.