Issuance and confirmation L/G available through EDI

From this August, Letters of Guarantee may be issued and confirmed though EDI (Electronic Data Interchange).

The International Shipping Agencies Association of Korea (ISAAK) made an agreement with the Korea Federation of Banks (KFB) and KT-Net for L/Gs to be issued and confirmed through EDI on August 4th.

EDI saves both manpower and time with quick examinations of the authenticity of L/Gs, and has been available since November 2001. 36 shipping agencies from among the member companies of ISAAK will introduce e-L/Gs into their workflow. On the KFB side, most member banks, with only 2-3 exceptions, will participate in handling e-L/Gs.

An official at ISSAK said, ?As the EDI method of handling L/Gs for air borne cargoes expands into sea-cargoes, the unified systems are available to join shippers, banks and shipping companies.?The official expected that this EDI system would help the competitiveness of South Korea to upgrade by cutting down on logistic costs such as warehouse charges and wages as well as saving on the required time to handle process.

The association anticipates that e-L/Gs will help to cut costs by about 15 billion won a year if 150 ?200 thousand sea-cargo L/Gs are issued through EDI.

The shipping agencies seem like the idea of adopting the EDI process alongside the traditional paper work process, and gradually phasing out paper and turning to EDI exclusively, later.

Meanwhile, although agencies are embracing the new system, Korean shipping companies haven?t come aboard in introducing e-L/Gs.