Earthshaking! 9 major shipping companies and 4 major international organizations have established a

Recently, the Digital Container Shipping Alliance (DCSA), consisting of nine shipping companies, announced:

It has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Baltic International Shipping Association (BIMCO), the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) to establish the Future International Trade Alliance (Future International Trade Alliance). , FIT Alliance).

The partners of the new alliance will work together to make the industry realize the importance of establishing uniform data standards across platforms around the world. It aims to promote the acceptance and adoption of electronic bills of lading (eBL) by regulators, banks and insurance companies, and to provide a communication platform for all stakeholders in international trade.

David Loosley, Secretary General and CEO of the International Baltic Shipping Council (BIMCO), said, “The digitisation of container shipping documentation will create value for international suppliers who rely on cross-industry shipping, combining these standards with the dry bulk we have developed with the assistance of DCSA. Aligning standards for electronic bills of lading across the cargo and bulk liquid industries will help accelerate the digitization of global trade.”

Dr Stephane Graber, Director General of the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA), said, “Interoperability between all players in trade and shipping is a key foundation for smooth data exchange and streamlining of our members’ end-to-end shipping processes.

As the owner of the only negotiable multimodal transport document, FIATA is recognized by UNCTAD and the International Chamber of Commerce, believing that industry-wide efforts to establish open-source, interoperable standards are critical to enabling the digitization of international trade.

FIATA is committed to facilitating the adoption of digital processes by freight forwarders. We pioneered the FIATA Electronic Bill of Lading (eFBL) standard, which will further facilitate the acceptance of electronic documents by all stakeholders involved in Bill of Lading (B/L) transactions.

By streamlining their day-to-day operations, our members will be able to focus on creating truly differentiated products for their customers on a digital basis. "

John WH Denton AO, Director General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), said, "Through the Federation for Future International Trade (FIT Alliance), we are able to work with key industry players to create and accelerate the adoption of digital bills of lading standards that will greatly simplify, Safe and seamless. This will drive dramatic changes in shipping productivity and business models, two key factors that help businesses rebuild better and unlock unprecedented potential.”

David Watson, Chief Strategy Officer at SWIFT, said: "In recent years, we have significantly accelerated cross-border flows and innovated at scale to enable instant flows. To this end, we are delighted to be part of this cross-industry collaboration, addressing solutions through standardisation. friction, enabling interoperability across ecosystems, and allowing rich data to flow freely across multiple platforms.”

Thomas Bagge, CEO of DCSA, said, “From the outset, DCSA has understood the importance of cross-industry collaboration for the realization of electronic bills of lading (eBL). The establishment of the future international trade unio is an important outcome.

Ocean transport carries 90% of the world's cargo transportation. As a result, the stakeholders involved in a bill of lading transaction are complex – from regulators, insurance companies, to shippers across industries. In order to facilitate the widespread use of electronic bills of lading (eBL), they must all adopt the digital bill of lading standard.

The agreement between DCSA and these major international industry bodies is an exciting milestone in our process of standardizing container shipping documents. We appreciate the vision and leadership of these organizations and work with them to further improve the transparency, efficiency, reliability and sustainability of the container shipping industry. "
It is understood that DCSA was established in April 2019 and is a neutral non-profit organization.

The purpose of its establishment is to formulate general information technology standards for the container industry and standardize digital development. Paving the way for digitalization, IT standardization and interoperability in the container shipping industry.

In January 2020, the organization released its first standard - a set of data and interface standards (T&T) that can be used by different carriers, shippers and third-party operations for cross-carrier shipment tracking.

In March of the same year, the Guidelines for the Implementation of Ship Cyber Security were released, aiming to help the global shipping industry deal with cyber risks.

In June of the same year, the Smart Container Information Exchange Standard was released to ensure the interoperability of smart containers on different devices.

At present, the organization has 9 members of shipping companies, namely Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, ONE, Evergreen Shipping, Yang Ming Shipping, HMM and Yixing Shipping.