Page 8 - INTERCARGO - Bulk Carrier Casualty Report 2024

INTRODUCTION

INTERCARGO’s annual Bulk Carrier Casualty Report examines the
safety performance of bulk carriers over a rolling 10 year period in
order to identify risks and improve safety for seafarers and of vessel

operation. The new edition of the Bulk Carrier Casualty Report 2024
reveals that between 2014 and 2023, 21 bulk carriers of more than
10,000 deadweight tonnes (dwt) were reported lost, with the tragic
loss of 89 seafarers’ lives.

However, examining the trends over the past 10 years it is clear there
is a trend of improving safety and declining ship losses between 2014
and 2023. In 2023 there was only one total loss of a dry bulk vessel

and no loss of life.

As the trends illustrate below, the average number of ships lost between
1990 and 2023 within the bulk carrier industry continues to go down,

showing positive signs of improvement in safety performance. These
statistics and trends can also be set against a backdrop of a significant
growth in the global bulk carrier fleet 2014-2023. Over the past decade
the bulk carrier fleet has grown from 10,000 vessels in 2013 to almost

12,200 by Jan 2024. Today’s bulk fleet represents more than 40% of
world tonnage.

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0
Year 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
No. of ship 20 26 17 8 14 5 14 11 27 14 19 4 5 4 5 6 7
losses
No. of life 46 186 30 78 106 57 50 80 87 43 23 64 4 0 13 8 37
losses
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