Issue Summary

The primary Intercargo issue concerns the Annual Trend of Bulk Carrier Casualties, which are reported on an annual basis to IMO.  However, there is also value in providing Members with a summary report of “Negative Performance Indicators” (NPI) to inform Members about Collisions, Groundings and other matters.  In 2011, there have been a significant number of casualties. The casualty report for 2011 has now been published with the Intercargo Benchmarking report.

Intercargo Policy

Intercargo believes that reporting maritime casualties and NPIs should be made more transparent as the benefit of promulgating “lessons learnt” to the wider shipping community outweighs any legal consequences of withholding sensitive information.  The current role of the IMO in reporting such accidents is acknowledged and could perhaps be extended to incorporate a publicly accessible area of the website where Flag States could log reports of serious incidents. Owners could therefore make more informed choices as to potential registers based on whether a particular flag state conducted efficient and timely enquiries into significant casualties.

Summary of Recent Developments

The 2011 Intercargo Bulk Carrier Casualty Report noted that 13 dry bulk vessels and 38 lives were lost in 2011 and that half of the lives lost were on ships with cargo related issues. Furthermore, one of the vessels lost was carrying nickel ore, and this cargo in particular remains a cause for serious concern within the dry bulk industry. We trust that no effort will be spared to investigate the causes of these incidents.