Trade platform the Global Shipping Business Network has launched its first blockchain-based application in China to reduce paper usage and enhance efficiency and transparency in the shipping industry.
Fast facts
- Named Cargo Release, the new blockchain-based app will connect the whole shipping supply chain, including shipping lines, consignees, their agents and terminals. The app promises to simplify data exchange processing with real-time updates and spares users a large volume of paperwork by storing information digitally. It will reduce turnaround time from days to hours, according to a press release shared with Forkast.News.
- GSBN chief executive Bertrand Chen said the shipping industry was on the cusp of an exciting revolution in which major efficiencies would be unlocked. He told Forkast.News: “The supply chain is really over-extended, so introducing new technologies through the blockchain, changing the way the shipping line and terminal operate, providing more transparency, getting better information, will actually remove some of the constraints and hopefully bring better service, better experience for the users.”
- The shipping industry is document-intensive. A recent study by Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, taking the Singapore and China shipping industries as examples, showed that digitizing shipping documents could reduce more than 99% of the carbon emissions produced by the use of paper documents in Singapore.
- GSBN, a consortium founded by eight global shipping lines and terminal operators, aims to build a blockchain-enabled operating system to redefine global trade. Cargo Release has already been deployed by Cosco Shipping Lines, OOCL and Hapag-Lloyd.