Today, the Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) said nine major ocean carriers have committed to issuing half of bills of lading electronically within five years and 100% within ten years. This is a big boost for DLT, given that eight out of ten electronic bill of lading (eBL) solutions use blockchain.

The DCSA has developed industry standards for eBL, which freight carriers have agreed to adopt. The shipping companies that signed up are MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM, Hapag Lloyd, ONE, Evergreen Marine, Yang Ming, HMM and ZIM. These represent eight of the ten largest container shippers, with COSCO of China being the big omission.

Electronic bills of lading are critical documents in international trade, representing ownership of goods in transit. They are a fundamental document for trade finance. Despite most companies going digital, eBL accounts for a small fraction of issued bills of lading, estimated at around 1.5%.

Therefore, a change from 1.5% to 50% will be a significant move and a strong boost for blockchain adoption.

“A fully digitized bill of lading enables a smoother customer experience throughout the supply chain, and in turn will help democratize commerce and reduce time and costs for all parties involved,” said Vincent Clerc, Director AP Moller-Maersk executive. “The need for digitization in logistics is urgent and the industry needs to speed up the process.”

Soren Toft, CEO of MSC, added: “Moving to 100% eBL will contribute to our climate goals, as we move towards net zero by 2050.”

A recent McKinsey study estimated that eBL could provide $6.5 billion in direct cost savings and $30-$40 billion in increasing global trade volume.

One of the impediments has been the interoperability of different eBL solutions. But DCSA has been working on that with four vendors demonstrating interoperable solutions.

Ten eBL solutions are supported by the International P&I Group, whose members provide protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance coverage for around 90% of the world’s ocean freight by tonnage.

Of those ten solutions, eight are blockchain-based, with the exception of EssDOCS and Bolero. However, these two have been integrated with other blockchain trade finance and trading solutions.

P&I Approved eBL Solutions: