Page 12 - INTERCARGO - Bulk Carrier Casualty Report 2022

Analysis of total losses

for 2012 to 2021

 27 bulk carriers over 10,000 dwt have been identified as
lost, or on average four ships per year.
 92 crewmembers have lost their lives as consequence, or
on average nine lives lost per year.

 The average age of the bulk carriers lost was 19.6 years.
 Vessels amounting to a total of 2.30 million dwt have been
lost, which amounts to an average 230,000 dwt per year.

Losses by cause

Reported cause Losses of life Losses of ships Likely root cause Losses of ships
Cargo liquefaction 70 5 Cargo liquefaction 5
Cargo shift 0 1 Unknown 1
Human element 1
Fire/explosion 0 2
Unknown 1
Structural 1
Flooding 22 3
Unknown 2
Human element 10
Grounding 0 13 Navigation 2
Weather 1
Structural 0 1 Unknown 1
Weather 0 1 Unknown 1
Unknown 0 1 Unknown 1
TOTAL 92 27 27

• 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% of the total) resulting in the high-
est loss of 70 lives or 76.1% of the total loss of life in the past ten
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% of the total) were due to flooding and cost
22 lives, or a significant 23.9% of total lives lost.
• The average life loss per ship casualty was 3.41 during the ten-year pe-

riod between 2012 and 2021, compared to 3.56 during 2011 and 2020.