The Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) has added some bulk to its business (pun intended) with the addition of BIMCO to its Board, bringing one of shipping’s largest membership organisations and most influential contract developers into the governance of its digital trade network..
The appointment connects GSBN’s technology and ecosystem with BIMCO’s experience in contracts, standards, and industry adoption..
Based on BIMCO’s results with electronic bills of lading (eBLs), its presence could possibly give GSBN an added edge as adoption expands across more maritime trades..
Announcing the appointment, GSBN CEO Bertrand Chen said “With BIMCO on our Board, GSBN’s network in container shipping and our eBL solution partners, I am confident we can carry together electronic bills of lading into trades where paper still rules.“..
Chen drew attention to the differences between container and bulk shipping.. Container shipping is concentrated among a limited number of large global carriers.. Bulk shipping involves a wider field of owners, charterers, commodity traders, cargo interests, banks, insurers, brokers, and agents, with commercial terms that can change from fixture to fixture..
Bulk shipping is already making progress
BIMCO’s adoption results show that this structure can support rapid progress..
In 2023, BIMCO launched its 25 by 25 Pledge, asking participating bulk shippers to use eBLs for 25% of their annual seaborne trade volume in at least 1 commodity by 2025..
By July 2024, BHP, Rio Tinto, Vale, and Anglo American had achieved an average eBL adoption rate of 25.1% across their iron ore trades.. The target was surpassed within the campaign’s first year, well ahead of the deadline..
The result covers 4 major shippers and their iron ore trades.. It still demonstrates what can happen when cargo interests and their trading partners commit to changing the transaction process..
BIMCO goes well beyond bulk shipping
BIMCO’s relevance to the GSBN Board extends across the maritime industry.. Its 2,100 members in 120 countries cover 64% of the world’s tonnage, while its contracts and clauses are used across dry bulk, tanker, gas, container, offshore, ship management, sale and purchase, and other shipping activities..
Its Electronic Bills of Lading Clause 2014 addresses the use of electronic bills, waybills, and delivery orders under charterparties.. BIMCO has also published an eBL standard for bulk shipping containing 20 common data fields found in bulk bills of lading..
GSBN has supported that standard on its infrastructure since 2023.. The relationship therefore has an existing foundation of technical work and industry engagement..
Where BIMCO could give GSBN an edge
GSBN already has considerable scale.. Its current figures show more than 1 million eBLs issued, over 20,000 participating organisations, and more than 1.5 million shipments released through its network..
Its recent work has moved towards one of the more difficult parts of eBL adoption: interoperability.. In January 2026, GSBN, IQAX eBL, and ICE CargoDocs completed a live cross-platform transaction in which an eBL moved between 2 platforms and through the shipping and banking networks involved in a trade between Thailand and China..
BIMCO’s seat on the Board could possibly give GSBN an added edge in extending this progress across more maritime trades.. BIMCO brings contractual knowledge, established standards, broad industry representation, and direct experience in turning an eBL adoption target into actual transaction volumes..
GSBN’s current figures confirm its scale, while BIMCO could help make that scale relevant to a wider cross-section of shipping.. BIMCO has already helped turn an industry adoption target into measurable transaction volumes..
Its Board presence gives GSBN access to that experience, together with a much wider view of how electronic documentation must work across shipping..
