World's Largest Steelmaker Reportedly Completes First Iron Ore Transaction Using Blockchain

The giant mining firm, BHP Billiton, has reportedly completed its first yuan-denominated transaction of iron ore utilizing blockchain technology. The company sold materials worth over $14 million to China Baoshan Iron & Steel Co LTD (Baosteel) – the listed arm of the world’s biggest steelmaker China Baowu Steel Group (Baowu).

Blockchain Utilized For Iron Ore Sale

Nearly four years ago, the massive mining firm revealed its plans to begin employing the Ethereum blockchain to improve the efficiency of its global supply chain. Tyler Smith, a BHP geophysicist, said at the time that the distributed LEDGER technology (DLT) could improve data transparency between the involved parties and the tracking processes.

According to a Reuters report from today, BHP completed its first sale, worth almost 100 million yuan ($14m) of iron ore to Baosteel. BHP later added that it would use blockchain for similar transactions in the future as well.

Interestingly, the latest transaction adds to the list of other blockchain-based deals completed by the giant Chinese steelmaker. Previously, the company concluded its first iron ore purchase supported by DLT with Rio Tinto – the London-based large metals and mining corporations.

It’s also worth noting that, outside of blockchain employment, these massive entities are now initiating transactions with the Chinese national currency – the yuan instead of the US dollar.

“The active promotion of renminbi settlement in iron ore transactions is not only for operational needs but also in line with the trend of yuan internationalization.” – said officials from Baowu.

Blockchain Adoption Continues

Another DLT-based transaction between large organizations took place in April, as CryptoPotato reported. The American Cargill Incorporated and the Singaporean international trading company, Agrocorp, executed a trade for $12 million worth of wheat using the dltledgers blockchain platform.

By utilizing DLT, both entities managed to settle the deal in five days. It marked a substantial improvement than the traditional trading processes, which could take up to a month.

Two officials from Rabobank, the financial service company that funded the deal, said that “consensus-driven smart contracts in this deal minimized our time spent on processing documents by more than half.”