The Far East and Oceania have now been connected to the Secure Chain as well. This means deepsea shipping lines and their ship agents will no longer issue fraud-sensitive PIN codes for containers arriving in Rotterdam from these regions. Instead, all intercontinental container cargo arriving in the port will be handled via the Secure Chain. Containers can only be collected from the deepsea terminals using this new, secure and reliable approach. More than 1.1 million containers have already been released via the Secure Chain.

The Secure Chain demonstrably contributes to more resilient port logistics, stated Jan Janse, Head of the Seaport Police Rotterdam, recently. “I can say with confidence that these measures have made the port substantially more secure.” The key to success is the excellent collaboration between all links in the logistics chain, supported by various government authorities. Thanks to the collective efforts of all parties involved, a completely new operational approach has been implemented in the port of Rotterdam in a relatively short time frame.

Closed logistics chain

In the Secure Chain, relevant parties digitally pass on the right to securely collect a container in the port to each other. From the shipping line to its customer – the shipper or forwarder – via an operating forwarder if applicable to, ultimately, the inland operator. This creates a closed logistics chain which solely comprises familiar, authorised parties. The e-mails with PIN codes that used to be so very common in the logistics chain are no longer used. Only a haulier, barge operator or rail operator that has been authorised via the Secure Chain is able to collect a container at the terminal.

All sailing areas connected one-by-one

The recently completed implementation of the Secure Chain for the Far East and Oceania was preceded last year by the implementation for containers from Latin America (31 March 2024), North America (1 July 2024) and Africa, the Middle East, India and Pakistan (1 October 2024). The final phase will soon begin. In this phase, deepsea shipping lines and ship agents will focus on the remaining container cargo for which they issue the release themselves. Additionally, the rollout of the Secure Chain for Hapag-Lloyd customers will commence. This shipping line stopped issuing PIN codes in 2022 and has been using Secure Container Release ever since. In order to achieve a uniform operational approach for the secure and reliable release of import containers in Rotterdam, Hapag-Lloyd will now link this platform to the Secure Chain.

Participating shipping lines

All the major deepsea shipping lines are participating in the Secure Chain: CMA CGM, COSCO Shipping, Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd (via Secure Container Release), HMM, Maersk, Marfret, MSC, ONE, OOCL, Yang Ming and ZIM.

Since the launch of the Secure Chain, more than 1.1 million import containers have already been handled via this new, secure and reliable approach in the port of Rotterdam. Some 2,000 shippers/forwarders and more than 1,000 inland operators have adapted their operational approaches accordingly.