INTERCARGO has published its Bulk Carrier Casualty Report 2012-2021. It reports that 27 bulk carriers of over 10,000 dwt were declared as total losses for the years 2012-2021.
According to INTERCARGO, bulkers losses took place as follows:
10,000-34,999 dwt: Six bulk carriers were lost, representing 22.2% of the total.
35,000 – 49,000 dwt: Five bulk carriers were lost, representing 16.3% of the total, with one loss related to suspected cargo liquefaction.
50,000- 59,000 dwt: Seven vessels were lost, representing 25.9% of the total, with the loss of 55 lives, accounting to 59.8%. Four of the casualties, were related to suspected cargo liquefaction.
The lowest number of casualties was in the 60,000 – 79,000 dwt range, representing 7.4% of the total.
80,000+ dwt: Losses of one Newcastlemax and one VLOC brought attention back to larger bulk carrier safety. The seven losses, or 25.9% of the total 27 casualties reported cost 22 lives, or 23.9% of the total 90 lives lost during the period.
Causes of casualty
As for the causes of casualties, INTERCARGO reports that:
– Cargo shift and liquefaction remain the greatest contributors to loss of life, and groundings remain the greatest cause of ship losses.
– Significant loss of life has been attributed to cargo liquefaction, with the five casualties (18.5%) resulting in the highest loss of 70 lives or 76.1% of the total loss of life in the past 10 years.
– The most common reported cause of ship losses has been grounding, with 13 losses or 48.1% of total losses.
– Three casualties (11.1%) were due to flooding and cost 22 lives, 23.9% of the total lives lost.
– The average life loss per ship casualty was 3.41 during the ten year period between 2012 and 2021, compared to 3.56 during 2011 and 2020.
At the end of January 2022, 20 of the 27 bulk carriers losses have had investigation reports made available on IMO GISIS, representing 74.1% of the total. The average time from incident to a report becoming available on GISIS has been 27.5 months for these investigations, with the shortest seven months and the longest 44 months.
Click to view the report in full