Swire Shipping, the leading provider of managed liner services, has achieved a significant first by accelerating a shipment of containerised grain from Australia to New Zealand using electronic bills of lading from Bolero International, the trade finance digitisation expert.

The transaction was the first use of Bolero’s electronic bills of lading (eBL) by Swire Shipping and the first on the Australia-New Zealand route and was completed through collaboration with BSM, the expert that specialises in the optimisation of trade execution business process including communication, compliance and document management.

The shipment conducted under open account, from Sydney and Newcastle to Tauranga, was undertaken on behalf of Cargill Australia, a major provider of grain, oilseeds and other agricultural commodities. Cargill Australia employs BSM for trade execution and Bolero for multi-party electronic document presentation (ePresentation). This solution combines BSM’s comprehensive, simple-to-use trade execution solutions and Bolero’s legal framework, eBLs and other digitised trade documents to deliver major savings in time and costs for Cargill Australia.

Following the success of this pioneering New Zealand shipment, Swire Shipping and Cargill Australia are now deploying eBLs to accelerate shipments of grain to the Solomon Islands from Australia. The adoption of paperless trade documents not only delivers major advantages in terms of speed, accuracy and security, but places companies at the forefront of a major trend as important trade and regulatory documents such as phytosanitary certificates are digitised.  Read More . . >

It was 1751 and things are about to really change.  The video is almost 15 minutes in length but it is quite interesting and sheds a very accurate light on how far we've come since then from a historical and practical point of view.

It was many moons ago that New Zealand farmer Wayne Coffey dreamt up the idea for a manual sheep handler.

With a state-of-the-art new factory just outside Wodonga, XLam is taking on the Australian construction industry with a highly innovative product and cutting-edge manufacturing processes. By William Poole.

Daimler Financial Services, the financial and mobility services arm of German car maker Daimler, has taken an unspecified "strategic investment" in New Zealand company Soul Machines, which has produced a digital-created human face able to speak text with intonation and facial expressions.

The NZ Transport Agency has set up a new, independently monitored 0800 number for industry workers or members of the public to provide information or raise concerns with vehicle certification work or other compliance issues.

Global engineering and infrastructure advisory company Aurecon is pleased to announce it has appointed Dr Ingrid Appelqvist as its new Client Director for Manufacturing.

17 Oct: 12:30 | Belgium-based Summa, providers of Summa-branded vinyl cutters, flatbed cutters, thermal printers and related media and materials, announces its purchase of UK-based CadCam Technology, which develops and manufactures laser cutting and laser engraving machines, as well as software.

Siemens AG (Munich, Germany: www.siemens.com) and Bentley Systems (Exton, Pa.: www.bentley.com) announced today the introduction of PlantSight, resulting from development together based on their highly complementary software portfolios.

Tetra Pak has launched a new plant management service designed to implement profitability strategies to for customers.