GSBN, COSCO SHIPPING, OOCL and SICIT Collaborate to Leverage Blockchain Technology to Improve Safe Transportation of Chemical Cargo
Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN), an independent, not-for-profit technology consortium building a blockchain-enabled operating system designed to redefine global commerce, today announces its partnership with COSCO SHIPPING Lines (COSCO SHIPPING), Orient Overseas Container Line ( OOCL) ), and Shanghai Research Institute of Chemical Industry Testing Co., Ltd (SICIT), to improve the safe transport of chemical cargo by leveraging blockchain technology.
Together, the four companies have utilized blockchain technology to achieve an industry-first proof-of-concept that contributes to improving transport safety in the shipping industry. As best practice in the industry, special cargo with designated goods, such as chemicals and lithium batteries, should be certified as safe to transport before they are handed over to logistics and shipping companies for export. This is important because carriers will manage the transport based on the corresponding certification to reduce the risk of potential accidents and protect the crew.
For exports from China, SICIT is one of the main organizations authorized to test and issue safe transport certificates. Traditionally, shippers would obtain the certificate from an accreditation body and provide the document either as a paper copy or as a scanned copy to carriers. However, for carriers and subsequent transport companies in the supply chain, certificates shared in this form can be difficult to verify, and thus entail risks such as mislabeling and fraud.
Leveraging GSBN’s blockchain-enabled platform, a new streamlined process has been designed to ensure that Secure Transport Certificates and the information they contain can be verified from the original source, and the information is accurate and reliable. To demonstrate this, the four named companies have developed a successful proof-of-concept with sender Midea, one of the largest manufacturers of electrical appliances in the world. Via GSBN, both COSCO SHIPPING and OOCL will be able to verify certificates obtained by Midea for their cargo directly with SICIT.
GSBN’s secure, blockchain-enabled infrastructure ensures that the certificate data is immutable and structured, which can be verified as the single source of truth. This helps to reduce human error, increase the safety of the cargo and accelerate the process overall. In the future, it may also facilitate the advancement of automated verification, as well as the circulation of trusted certificate data stored on the blockchain among multiple parties.
With Internet of Things (IoT) technology increasingly being integrated into shipping, the data generated from connected devices can be further leveraged to provide real-time visibility and traceability. The combined properties of different technological solutions used will ultimately contribute to increasing transport safety.
Bertrand Chen, CEO of GSBN said: “The freight forwarding industry is undergoing a once-in-a-lifetime digital transformation leap. As part of this, it is increasingly important to be able to share information while having full control over who it is shared with and ownership of that data. The use of blockchain infrastructure in this proof-of-concept with SICIT enables systematic and reliable verification to occur directly with SICIT, which, combined with the future use of data from IoT devices, will make a significant difference in risk reduction and efficiency improvement all in all.”
Gaojun Wang, Director of the Information Technology Department at SICIT said, “Redefining the certification process for secure transportation by leveraging GSBN’s blockchain infrastructure is a significant breakthrough in verification. Apart from improving transportation security, the streamlined digital process also increases overall efficiency, minimizes human error caused during manual data entry, as well as providing greater transparency for all parties in the entire supply chain.”
Yoyo Ju, Lead of Order Fulfillment Center – Doc Management at Midea, said: “This proof-of-concept changes the way we handle the shipment of goods that require special handling. Increasingly, we are looking for streamlined, paperless and digitized processes that can help us improve efficiency and visibility, while reducing risk and associated costs. The new process enabled by GSBN and SICIT gives us the assurance that other goods loaded on the same vessels have also been tested, properly certified and properly handled, to minimize potential risks to our own cargo. We believe this is a milestone for the industry and will quickly see wider use.”
Source: Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN)
