Three key challenges face container shipping in 2023: resilience, sustainability, and moving the industry toward paperless trade.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the supply chain’s fundamental lack of resilience; an issue now high on the agenda and attracting Board-level attention.
To improve resilience, two things must increase — visibility and flexibility. Currently, supply chain partners lack the data they need for visibility into key shipping events. Better visibility allows customers to take decisions based on timely notification of exceptions and increases resilience by giving stakeholders enough time to make alternative operational plans. The challenge is to move away from manual, paper-based processes toward standardized digital data exchange. This can only be enabled by interoperable systems that leverage digital standards to allow seamless, end-to-end communication of accurate, timely data.
The other big challenge is sustainability. DCSA represents companies with zero-carbon goals and long-term plans to get there. However, through smart collaboration, we can act in the short-term to reduce emissions while we wait for the green fuel of the future. Just-in-time (JIT) port call practices, for example, can optimize steaming speeds. According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), this could reduce fuel consumption by up to 14%. JIT port call principles, and standards to enable them, are essential for short-term sustainability gains, and we believe the industry must move toward them now.
Lastly, the industry must start transitioning to fully paperless trade, which could unlock $18 billion in gains for the shipping ecosystem. With the UK government recently announcing its intention to legalize digital trade documentation, and 80% of bills of lading governed by English law, legal barriers to eBL are breaking down. On the technical side, DCSA is nearing completion of standards that will enable full technical interoperability between all commercial eBL platforms. The DCSA is working with other international bodies to address the digitalization of other trade documents.