SINGAPORE : Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) has announced a collaboration with Cosco Shipping Lines, Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), and Shanghai Research Institute of Chemical Industry Testing (SICIT), to improve the safe transportation of chemical cargo by harnessing blockchain technology.

By harnessing GSBN’s blockchain-enabled platform, a new streamlined process has been designed to ensure that safe transportation certificates and the information they contain can be verified from the original source, and the information is accurate and reliable.

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 reduce human mistakes, enhance security of the cargo and accelerate the process overall. In the future, it can also facilitate the advancement in automated verification, as well as the circulation of reliable certificate data stored on the blockchain among multiple parties.

Bertrand Chen, CEO of GSBN said, “The shipping industry is undergoing a once-in-a-lifetime digital transformation leap. As part of this, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to share information whilst retaining full control of who it is shared with as well as ownership of that data. The use of blockchain infrastructure in this proof-of-concept with SICIT allows for systematic and trusted verification to happen directly with SICIT, which, combined with the future application of data from IoT devices, will make a significant difference in risk reduction and efficiency enhancement overall.”

Gaojun Wang, Director of Information Technology Department at SICIT said, “Redefining the Safe Transportation certification process by harnessing GSBN’s blockchain infrastructure is a significant breakthrough in verification. Aside from enhancing transportation safety, the streamlined digital process also increases the overall efficiency, minimises human error caused during manual data entry, as well as provides greater transparency to all parties across the supply chain.”

“This proof-of-concept is changing how we manage the shipment of goods that require special handling. Increasingly we are looking for streamlined, paper-free and digitised process that can help us improve efficiency and visibility, while reducing risks and associated costs. The new process enabled by GSBN and SICIT provides us with the assurance that other goods loaded upon the same vessels have also been tested, properly certified and handled correctly, to minimise potential risks to our own cargo. We believe this is a milestone for the industry and will quickly gain wider adoption,” said 

Yoyo Ju, Lead of Order Fulfillment Center – Doc Management at Midea.