Page 10 - INTERCARGO - Bulk Carrier Casualty Report 2025

ANALYSIS

OF TOTAL LOSSES

FROM 2015 TO 2024

• 20 bulk carriers over 10,000 dwt have been identified as
lost, an average of 2.0 per year

• 89 crew members lost their lives as consequence, or on
average nine fatalities per year

• The average age of the bulk carriers lost was 18.3 years

• Vessels amounting to 1.79 million dwt in total have been
lost, an average 179,115 dwt per year

Losses by cause

Reported cause Losses of life Losses of ships Likely root cause Losses of ships
Cargo liquefaction 55 3 Cargo liquefaction 3
0 1 Unknown 1
Cargo shift
12 1 Human element 1
Fire/explosion 0 1 Human element 1
Structural 22 1 Structural 1
Human element 6
Weather 1
Grounding 0 9
Navigation 1
Unknown 1
Collision 0 1 Human element 1
Unknown 0 1 Unknown 1
Weather 0 2 Unknown 2
TOTAL 89 20 20

• Cargo liquefaction remains the greatest contributor to loss of
life, accounting for 55 lives or 61.8% of the total loss of life in the
past ten years.
• Groundings remain the greatest cause of ship losses, with nine
losses or 45.0% of the total.
• Two casualties (10.0% of the total) were a result of cargo shifts, and
these cost 12 lives - a remarkable 13.5% of the total number of lives lost.
• The average life loss per ship casualty was 4.45 during the ten-year
period between 2015 and 2024, and 4.24 between 2014 and 2023,
4.00 between 2013 and 2022, 3.41 between 2012 and 2021. This
compares to 3.56 during 2011 and 2020.

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