Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN), a blockchain consortium founded by a group of shipping lines and terminal operators, reports that it has successfully completed a pilot transaction involving the consent-based collection and sharing of shipping data on its new GSBN Data Sharing Management Application.
In collaboration with Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BOCHK), Hapag-Lloyd and A & W Food Service, the pilot transaction was completed in approximately 20 minutes, completing a major step forward for the blockchain network towards its goal of supplying banks with verifiable shipping data to facilitate approval processes and make trade finance more accessible.
GSBN’s Data Sharing Management App includes a blockchain-enabled application which allows companies to provide consent via the App and instruct carriers to share verified shipping data. This will allow financial institutions to access that immutable shipping data in a standardised and structured format for use in their financing decisions.
Sharing the data in a structured format should also allow for new automated checking procedures to be created, GSBN notes, which could reduce approval times from days to minutes.
“Enabling trusted data sharing is essential to facilitating a smooth trade finance process and it has always been a huge challenge in the supply chain industry,” said Dr Dirk Reiß, Senior Director, IT at Hapag-Lloyd, one of GSBN’s founder companies.
“As a shipping company committed to innovation, we are delighted to have completed this pilot transaction with GSBN’s platform around unifying consent collection and the sharing of shipping data. We believe this has an important implication to many businesses and will further expedite the growing pace of digital transformation across the industry.”
