Shipping has seen a significant improvement in safety over the past decade, with higher standards of ship construction and operation reducing the number of casualties, but emerging risks from new fuels and digital technologies must be addressed to maintain progress, according to DNV.
Machinery damage the peak casualty cause
The long-term impact of the new fuels on ships’ engines may not yet be fully known, says DNV, but it is known that machinery damage is the most common cause of casualty.
There is great uncertainty about how ships should be fuelled, propelled, and designed to meet both future environmental targets and business demands
LNG has been the alternative fuel of choice over the past 10 years, with high numbers recorded for 2021, thus positioning LNG as a relevant fuel for many.
Ships ordered with electro fuels, hybrid, or fully electric drives are on the increase, and further solutions are likely to emerge.
Every one of these solutions brings a requirement to evaluate all safety aspects.
Pandemic impact on safety
Passenger shipping was immediately and heavily impacted by the pandemic. Because passenger vessels are involved in a relatively high share of safety incidents, particularly machinery damage and contacts, those numbers dropped as activity stopped.
Tanker shipping activity followed a different track. According to the report, oil prices plunged in the northern spring of 2020 and trade intensified as oil market stakeholders seized the opportunity to stock up at low prices. Many tankers were chartered for storage.
Container carriers saw activity drop early in 2020 as China went into lockdown. As China gradually opened, Europe and the US shut down. Stocks continued to pile up, with serious disruptions to the supply chain worldwide.
In addition, basic services were gradually reinstated, but challenges quickly arose, with stockpiles, reduced capacities in ports, limited availability of trucking, labour shortages and a shortage of containers.
In addition, it was challenging to change crew as travelling was heavily restricted. There were many examples of crew being stuck onboard ships for months longer than planned.
Downward trend for detentions
The average number of vessels inspected each year between 2012 and 2019 was 94,800. Fewer inspections were carried out in 2020 because of the pandemic.
The overall trend for the period from 2012 onwards reveals a decline in the number of inspections despite a steady growth of the global fleet
However, DNV notes that while this is true for the entire fleet, the underlying details show a slightly different trend.
In fact, the number of inspections is increasing for the growing fleets of bulk carriers, container ships and gas carriers, and are on a sustained level for other tankers. Nevertheless, fleets which are falling in number are seeing a diminishing number of inspections.
On the other hand, inspections that lead to detentions are following a clear downward trend. By 2019, detentions were 40% fewer than in 2012, a remarkable reduction.
The number of detained ships was down for all vessel types, but most of all for general cargo carriers. Over the years, general cargo carriers have been the most detained vessels, but since 2019 detained general cargo carrier numbers are on about the same level as bulk carriers.
In that context, it should be mentioned that there are almost twice as many inspections of bulk carriers than of general cargo carriers, so the share of inspected ships that lead to detention is still higher for general cargo carriers
DNV mentions.
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