Page 9 - INTERCARGO - Bulk Carrier Casualty Report 2024

INTRODUCTION

Initial analysis of the statistics in the Report 2024 reveals some
potential safety gaps, such as:
• Cargo liquefaction remains the greatest contributor

to loss of life, accounting for 55 lives or 61.8% of the
total loss of life over the past ten years.
• Groundings remain the greatest cause of ship
losses, with nine losses or 42.9% of the total.

Bulk carrier safety must never be overlooked. We must continue to
remind ourselves of how INTERCARGO’s work has contributed to
significant improvements in safety, moving us away from the ‘dark

days’ of the past, where significant losses of lives and ships occurred.
As shown in the graph below, from 1990 to 2000, our sector was
losing between 5 and 26 bulk carriers per year, resulting in the tragic
loss of 23 to 186 seafarers respectively.

Since then, safety performance in the sector has steadily improved.
This is an impressive achievement especially when considering the
considerable rise in the number of bulk carriers in the world fleet

during this period.

200

180
160
140

120
100
80

60
40
20
0
Year 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
No. of ship 8 4 9 7 13 3 9 2 5 3 2 1 1 2 2 2 1
losses
No. of life 39 15 39 44 38 0 25 0 18 0 32 0 27 9 0 12 0
losses
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