Annual casualty figures from INTERCARGO, the International Association of Dry Cargo Shipowners, highlight continuing improvement in the safety performance of the sector.
The bulk carrier fleet has grown significantly in recent years to cater for the world’s growing economy. Between 2014 and 2023 the number of vessels increased by 20% to 12,200, with today’s bulk fleet representing more than 40% of world tonnage and carrying an estimated 55% of the global transport work. Despite the fleet growth, the loss of vessels continues to fall.
Areas of concern remain including cargo liquefaction or other moisture related cargo failure mechanisms, which pose the greatest risk to life, contributing to the loss of 55 lives or 61.8% of the total loss of life over the past 10 years. Groundings remain the biggest cause of ship losses. Enhancement of safety awareness by all parties, and especially the need for stakeholders to provide ships’ crews with the correct cargo characteristics details, remains a priority to reduce casualties even further, the report states.
Dimitris Fafalios, INTERCARGO chairman, commented: “Bulk carrier safety must never be overlooked. We have come a long way since the dark days of the 1980s, when we experienced many tragic losses of lives and vessels. Since then, safety performance of the sector has steadily improved, thanks in large part to concerted efforts by INTERCARGO with other industry stakeholders. These latest statistics reveal an impressive achievement, especially when considering the significant rise in the number of bulk carriers during this period.”
