Containershipping has its fair share of safety issues and loss. Each year certain kinds of losses issues come to the forefront and shipowners should take cognizance of that. Keeping that in mind Allianz Global has analyzed the 2020 loss trends and advises on how to stay safe from them.
Car Carriers & Ro-Ro Vessels
Issues with car carriers and ro-ro vessels remain among the biggest safety issues for the
shipping industry.
The number of total losses involving ro-ros has increased year-on-year, while reported incidents (188) are up by 20%.
These, and similar vessels, can be more exposed to fire and stability issues than others, and can require additional emphasis on risk management. Many can have quick turnarounds in port and a number of accident investigations have revealed that pre-sail away stability checks were either not carried out as required or were based on inaccurate cargo information. In many cases cargo was not fully-secured prior to sailing.
While major losses have trended down, attritional claims are becoming more of an issue for
insurers, in part due to increasing complexity.
Litigation, particularly in the US, can drag on, while any environmental issues can also take
time to resolve, adding significantly to claims costs.
In addition, the frequency of higher value claims has been rising, as has severity from
navigation and machinery issues.
Container ship fires
Vessels become larger every year – capacity has increased by 1,500% over 50 years – which can impact fire prevention and salvage in the event of an incident. Awareness of this problem has been growing, but is still a major concern and a focus of insurers.
Technology could play a role in reducing the risk of fire on board vessels, including
temperature monitoring of cargo, water spray and CO2 fire suppression in cargo holds, more active firefighting on deck, including water curtains, water screens and fixed water monitors and even integrating fire suppression systems in drones.
A National Cargo Bureau (NCB) study found the majority of containers it inspected had issues with mis-declared or improperly stowed cargo.
Of the 500 containers inspected, more than half failed with one or more deficiencies, including the way cargo was secured, labelled or declared. This is an issue that needs to be
addressed by the whole supply chain. Too much cargo is being loaded that is not properly
documented and appropriately stowed, increasing the threat of fires and risking lives. In
response, a number of major container ship operators are taking steps to tackle the issue,
including more stringent cargo verification and inspections and higher penalties and fines for infringements.
Technology and machine learning is also increasingly being deployed to help better review cargo manifests and identify issues.
However, this is a problem that will only get worse if action doesn’t continue, as vessels
become bigger and the range of goods transported continues to grow. Chemicals and
batteries are increasingly shipped in containers, and these pose a serious fire risk if they are misdeclared or wrongly stowed.
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Source: Allianz Global
