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 2009, there have been a significant number of casualties in the month of July, August and September.  These issues are referred to in the "Summary of Recent Developments" section below but will be further discussed and examined in detail at Intercargo's forthcoming meeting in Athens in October 2009.

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 2008 Intercargo Bulk Carrier casualty report was received by the IMO Maritime Safety Committee meeting MSC 86 in May 2009.  This noted that four Dry Bulk vessels and 15 lives were lost in 2008 and that yet again, the losses pointed to a disproportionate number of smaller, older dry bulk vessels engaged on the intra-Asian trades.  That the trend for bulk carrier losses measured on an historical basis remains positive.  That the trend for these types of vessels on these types of trades remains significant, remains a cause for some concern.  We trust that no effort will be spared to investigate the causes including whether in some cases, whether the cargo itself contributed to the actual accident.

Bulk Carrier Casualty Report

(1 January- 9 October 2009)

Key Findings

• To date five bulk carriers (>10,000 dwt) have been lost, a greater number than for the whole of 2009, but this must be set against the ever expanding dry bulk fleet. A total of 39 lives have been lost (38 in two incidents), which compares unfavorably to the total of 15 lives lost in the 2008 casualties.  The average age of bulk carriers lost to date, in 2009, is 30.25 years, a slight increase from the 2008 age average, 29.1 years. It must be noted that there were a number of other incidents that could be included in this report, most notably the Full City and the Asian Forest.  The reason that these have not been included is that  Asian Forest is widely considered a general cargo vessel (this report examines casualties categorised as bulk carriers only) and the panamax Full City, although suffering severe damage as a result of grounding, has not been categorised as a casualty as it has since been refloated. A further bulk carrier, the Algoport, has not been included in this report as it was not an internationally trading ship. The ‘Laker’ sank whilst being towed from Canada to Chengxi shipyard to undergo modifications. There was no loss of life on any of these vessels.

Discussion

• The long term trend in both ship losses and associated loss of life continues downwards The ten-year rolling average shows considerable improvements between the 1990-1999 figures and the 1999-present figures: the number of ships lost is now less than half that in the earlier period and the number of lives lost has fallen by two-thirds. Whilst the figures for 2009 show higher than normal figures for lives lost, it is important to note than this is by no means a suggestion that recent improvements are no longer evident, and one must consider the data somewhat anomalous.

• However, the loss of three vessels engaged on either intra-Asian routes or Chinese domestic voyages denotes a possible continuing trend, building on last year’s report. While great improvements have been made in bulk carrier safety, there appears to be a persistent element that is now coming to the fore relating to older, and usually smaller, vessels  operating intra-Asian routes. Two such losses have been reported thus far in 2009, both of which accounted for the 38 lives lost as a result of bulk carrier casualties of 2009.

• INTERCARGO will examine these cases as far as practicable and continue to monitor this worrying aspect of an otherwise relatively encouraging year. However, determining the causes of incidents remains challenging.

• We cannot say with any certainty that any particular casualty was caused as a result of structural issues although there were reports of structural failure causing flooding on the Ioannis N K.  The reason for the loss of the Chang Ying remains unknown; however, the sudden loss of the vessel during typhoon Marakot suggests structural failure as a potential cause. INTERCARGO hopes that the accident investigations will pay particular attention to this aspect of these losses.

• We look forward to seeing subsequent accident investigation reports which INTERCARGO believes should be made available to the public to ensure the largest audience possible can learn from the findings, helping to prevent further casualties and tragic loss of life.

• INTERCARGO notes that the Black Rose and also the Asian Forest were both lost while carrying a cargo of iron ore, both incidents occurred  to vessels which had loaded cargoes in India during the monsoon season  although it would premature to suggest that this was a contributory factor until the nature of the cargoes - fines or otherwise becomes apparent in any subsequent enquiries..  These seasonal conditions combined with unconfirmed reports that  the Asian Forest had been loaded with an allegedly highTransportable Moisture Limit (TML) cargo, suggests that a properly conducted professional laboratory test  is an essential prerequisite before accepting such a cargo.  Advice has been given from sources as diverse as the UK Maritime Authorities and Intercargo Associate Member, the UK P&I Club , which has put out a loss-prevention  circular.

 It told members: "In a number of recent cases, the cargo to be loaded was found to exceed the specified Transportable Moisture Limit (TML). This resulted in the ship sailing and then having to return to port with the ship listing more than 20º." An official from South Korea's P+F Marine, the Asian Forest 's operator, says certification had been issued before the ship set sail, although it is unaware if laboratory tests were conducted to confirm the cargo's moisture content.


Interim list of 2009 Bulk Carrier Casualties (at 9 October 2009)

Please note that this is an interim list of casualties, with final confirmation expected in a)  The Annual Report submitted by Intercargo to IMO  and b)  The Benchmarking Report for 2009-2010, to be published in March 2010.  Eleven vessels are noted on this list although only the following vessels are likely to feature in the final version of the 2009 Casualty Report as they are Bulk Carriers (as opposed tio General Cargo vessels) and there is almost no possibility of the vessels being returned to service. 

Asian Forest - 17.7.09 - Capsized. Iron Ore fines off India.  Probably Gen Cargo, not B/Carrier
Te Hsing * - 22.7.09 - Fire : 16 lives lost
Ioannis NK * - 23.7.09 - Took in water and sank off South Africa - "NI category" in Intercargo list
Full City - 31.7.09 - Grounding - Repairable, so may be removed from final Casualty list
Chang Ying * - 8.8.09 - Typhoon, seawater flooding into hold : 22 lives lost - "domestic" trader
Gulser Ana * - 26.8.09 - Grounded off Madagascar.  Broke in two
Algoport - 6.9.09 - A Great Lakes "Domestic" vessel.  Sank under tow to Chinese yard for lengthening
Seli I * 8.9.09 - Grounded off South Africa
Black Rose * - 9.9.09 - Sank off India having loaded iron ore. 1 life lost
Lady Belinda * - 22.9.09 - drifted, having been anchored in Vietnamese river for some time
Wan Shou Shan * - 11.10.09 - flooded engine room off Philippines

Update of Negative Performance Indicators (NPIs) to 31 December 2009

The following information follows the format and definitions used in the "Benchmarking" report.  It measures the percentages of NPI incidents occuring to Bulk Carriers, of which there are 311 reported to Bulk Carriers over 10,000 dwt in 2009 compared with 277 for 2008.  It does not contain any details for the declared Casulties which are shown separately.

The most significant issue in 2009 concerns the number of incidents relating to engine breakdown - 68 notified incidents in 2009 compared to 44 in 2008.  At this stage, we simply do not understand the reason for this but if analysis of the data shows any causal inferences, we will mention this in the March 2010 edition of the Bulk Carrier Benchmarking Report.  Pro tem, the average age of the Bulk Carriers over 10,000 dwt that had propulsion problems was 16.92 years compared to an overall average age of Bulk Carriers over 10,000 dwt engaged in the international trades of about 14.3 years.