A UN/LOCODE (United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations) is a five-character code that uniquely identifies a port, airport, rail terminal, dry port, or other logistics location anywhere in the world. The code consists of a two-letter country code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2) followed by a three-character location code — for example, DEHAM for Hamburg, Germany, or CNSHA for Shanghai, China.

Who maintains the UN/LOCODE list?

The UN/LOCODE list is maintained by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) under the auspices of the UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). It is updated twice a year (January and July) and currently contains over 116,000 locations across 249 countries and territories.

Where are UN/LOCODEs used in shipping?

UN/LOCODEs appear on Bills of Lading (port of loading, port of discharge, place of delivery), in EDI messages (EDIFACT, X12), on sea waybills, in customs declarations, on carrier booking confirmations, and in freight forwarding systems. Port agents, customs brokers, and NVOCCs routinely use them to identify origin and destination points without ambiguity.

What do the function codes mean?

Each LOCODE entry has a function field with up to eight positions, each indicating a facility type: Port (maritime), Rail terminal, Road terminal, Airport, Postal exchange, ICD / Dry port, Fixed transport installations, and Border crossing point. A location may have multiple functions — for example, a major hub like Frankfurt (DEFRA) is both an airport and a rail/road terminal.

How do I read a UN/LOCODE?

A UN/LOCODE has exactly five characters. The first two are the ISO country code (e.g. DE for Germany, CN for China, US for United States). The next three identify the specific location within that country (e.g. HAM for Hamburg). LOCODEs are always uppercase and appear without a space in shipping documents, though some systems write them with a space after the country code (DE HAM).

Can I use LOCODEs for inland locations, not just seaports?

Yes. LOCODEs cover seaports, inland container depots (ICDs), dry ports, airports, rail freight terminals, road vehicle terminals, postal exchange offices, and border crossing points. Any logistics location that is relevant to international trade can be assigned a LOCODE. This makes the standard equally useful for door-to-door and multimodal shipments, not just ocean freight.

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