essDOCS enables first fully integrated paperless iron ore trade
Paper-heavy digitiser service, essDOCS, has managed the first fully integrated paperless trade transaction in iron ore from Australian mining group, Rio Tinto, to one of US distributor Cargill’s Chinese customers.
The trade, which was supported by HSBC Singapore and BNP Paribas, travelled on an end-to-end data flow from the sales of goods contract on Chinsay’s ICP platform, the letter of credit management on the Voltron blockchain and the shipping documentation on CargoDocs DocEx.
Core users accessed everything through the Voltron blockchain
The three-way integration, which was all accessed by core users through Voltron, saw a significant reduction from one to two days to less than two hours in time taken to digitally process commodity contracts.
“This is a significant, industry-defining solution which will evolve the trade process,” says Cargil’s managing director for metal business, Lee Kirk. “From acceptance of key commercial terms through to delivery, the speed achieved from a fully digitised trade enables us to better meet the needs of our customers across the globe.”
UK-based essDOCS wants to achieve fully digitised cross-border trades, which will cut down project turnaround times, introduce more automation and increased accuracy.
Iain Morrison, HSBC Singapore head of global trade and receivables finance, is confident Singapore will continue “to play its role in enabling the evolution of trade finance”.
Alongside Morrison, Chinsay’s CEO, Colin Hayward, is excited to see “the industry at a real point of innovation”, with vendors, global corporations and banks all working side by side.
