India is to integrate electronic Bills of Lading (eB/L) and digital documentation into the country’s electronic Port Community System (PCS), incorporating Blockchain Document Transfer (BDT) to manage the secure exchange of data.
The PCS, which offers access to a curated marketplace of specialised services named P-CaSo, was built by Portall Infosystems and has now integrated the CargoX BDT platform into the infrastructure.
The CargoX platform was successfully tested by Portall Infosystems and a range of Indian shipping stakeholders for suitability in transferring electronic bills of lading prior to the integration, with CargoX now accessible through the P-CaSo services marketplace.
Proof-of-concept tests and simulations were run with various use-case scenarios, including breakbulk and container shipments, exporting and importing from and into India, involving companies such as breakbulk carrier operator G2 Ocean.
“We are strategically backing trade digitalisation and we were glad to provide testing and insight for the project of digitalisation of bills of lading in India with our partner CargoX,” said Leif Arne Strømmen, Vice President of Innovation at G2 Ocean.
“Because of the lockdown situation, we were unable to execute regular live shipments within the given narrow time frame. Therefore we successfully simulated shipments and processing based on real historic B/Ls, to provide complete insight into the future workflows and optimisations.”
Portall built the new Indian Port Community System from the ground up within six months after winning a tender to modernise the existing set-up in 2018, with complete implementation achieved in 13 major Indian ports.
“We have developed the CargoX Platform for contactless, distributed online teamwork – and we are glad we did,” said Stefan Kukman, CEO and founder of CargoX.
“In these times of multiple risks to our common society, we are proud to help shipping companies, who represent the backbone of the economy, resolve supply chain document sending issues and enable them to meet delivery deadlines everywhere in the world, in a secure and efficient manner, while also lowering the document transfer cost.”
