More than a quarter of the shipping losses of last year occurred in the waters of South China and Southeast Asia, according to a recent report by insurance and financial services company Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty.
This comes despite a 50 per cent reduction over ten years in the total ships lost worldwide in 2016, coming in at 85, a 16 per cent reduction from the previous year, according to Safety & Shipping Review 2017.
The number of casualties from the incidents also saw a 4 per cent decline, coming in at 2,611.
Twenty-three of the shipping losses worldwide occurred in the South China, Indochina, Indonesia and Philippines region, which the report notes is ‘the top hotspot for the last decade’. Despite the fact that loss activity ‘remained stable’ it was almost double the 12 losses that occurred in the East Mediterranean that year.
During 2016, some 30 cargo vessels were lost, nearly one third of the total, with eight passenger ferries lost.
The most common cause ‘remains foundering (sinking)’ points out the report, accounting for more than half of all losses during the year, ‘with bad weather often a factor’. In addition ‘over a third of shipping casualties during 2016 were caused by machinery damage,’ notes the report.
Last month, Macau saw one fishing boat sink on May 21 and a barge carrying sand nearly sink near the airport, causing the local Marine and Water Bureau (DSAMA) to issue alerts about vessel maintenance. Business Daily requested information on the number of sunken vessels in territorial waters but had yet to receive a response by the time this story had gone to print.
Accidents
Neighbouring Hong Kong reported a total of 319 marine accidents in Hong Kong territorial waters just last year, according to statistics from the Marine Department of the HKSAR. Of these, 112 cases were due to collisions, resulting in the death of one person and 17 injuries. In total, two deaths were registered in Hong Kong territorial waters last year whilst outside Hong Kong waters nine deaths were registered despite only 49 cases of collisions occurring (resulting in eight deaths).
The shipping report points out that structural integrity was one of the main risks identified in the number of breaches in recent years ‘particularly concerning vessels that have been converted’, while fires at sea on container ships ‘have raised questions about whether safety systems have kept pace with vessel size,’ additionally pointing out that ‘inaccurately labelled cargo can exacerbate the issue’.
A total of 16 cases of ‘fire/explosion’ occurred in Hong Kong waters, while nine occurred outside, according to the statistics, resulting in eight injuries and one death. Accidents involving ‘contact’ amounted to 72 for both territorial waters, while those of ‘grounding/stranding’ reached 38.
The report observes that the main dangers facing shipping currently are ‘crew negligence, inadequate vessel maintenance and cyber increasing areas of concern, as economic pressures challenge budgets’.
