COSCO SHIPPING Lines Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China COSCO SHIPPING Corporation Limited, (COSCO SHIPPING), has teamed up with Changan Automobile, China Construction Bank and Bank of China to issue the world’s first electronic negotiable cargo document (NCD), based on the world’s first official NCD template.
This marks the global debut of the NCD template in real cross-border transportation business after the adoption of the United Nations Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents in December 2025.
The newly issued document has brought two pivotal improvements to Changan Automobile’s export procedures. First, the document issuance is advanced by 10 days. Previously, a bill of lading could only be issued after cargo was loaded onto vessels in Qinzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, whereas issuance can now be completed once goods are loaded onto freight trains in Chongqing. Second, the document circulation period among banks has been slashed to less than 2 hours from what used to take 3 to 5 working days.
In international trade, the lawful holder of an ocean bill of lading is entitled to conduct settlement and financing with banks against the document. By contrast, rail and road waybills merely function as cargo receipts without the same legal effect as the bill of lading.
Back in 2019, the Chinese government formally submitted a proposal at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, calling for the formulation of international rules governing negotiable transportation documents applicable to railway and other inland transport modes.
In December 2025, after six years of multilateral consultations, the UN General Assembly formally adopted the NCD convention, filling the long-standing legal vacuum regarding the negotiability of transportation documents held by landlocked countries that are engaged in cross-border trade.
Following the convention’s adoption, an applicable NCD template was urgently needed to translate legal texts into tangible practice. In October 2025, at the annual conference of the China Maritime Law Association, COSCO SHIPPING and Dalian Maritime University jointly released the world’s first official NCD template.
The joint NCD issuance by COSCO SHIPPING and others is powered by the blockchain technology of the Global Shipping Business Network, which enables full-process online operations.
Looking ahead, COSCO SHIPPING will deepen cooperation with manufacturing enterprises and financial institutions to expand NCD application across more competitive industrial sectors, contributing more tailored shipping solutions to the digital transformation of global supply chains.
(Executive editor: Zuo Shihan)
