The frequency and scale of maritime claims incidents are climbing, with more than 30 incidents since 2016 requiring a joint arrangement by the 13-member International Group of P & I Clubs (IG). These claims cover between $10 million and $0.1 billion.

In a speech to the London Association of Insurers last week, Captain John Dolan, the Standard Club's deputy director of loss prevention, identified some worrying trends and revealed how they are being dealt. The rapid increase in ship size is a key factor for most at-risk sectors, with the largest container ships this century nearly tripling in capacity.

　　X-Press Pearl in fire is sinking

He said this affected the size of the sailing and fixed and floating object (FFO) claims, of which 18 claims for a total of $0.687 billion had been processed in IG pool claims since 2016. In terms of volume, container ship fires followed with four. The total amount claimed is USD 0.486 billion.

Since 2017, the frequency of fires on container ships resulting in claims exceeding $500000 has more than doubled, Dolan said, referring to data from Nordic Marine Insurance Company (Cefor). Of course, larger ships are much riskier, he said, highlighting a common misgivings of many about whether initiatives to provide greater firefighting capacity will be enough.

　　Storm-damaged container ship ONE Apus heads for Kobe

At the same time, the frequency of container overboard and container stack collapse is also on the rise. For example, between November 2020 and March 2021, there were six cases of box loss in the North Pacific. They involve vessels operated by Evergreen, Maersk, MSC and ONE.

In the most recent incident, more than 100 containers are thought to have been lost when the 4.253 teu zim Kingston encountered rough seas outside the juan de fuka strait off vancouver island on October 21. A container pile also caught fire and burned for days, probably because the container containing potassium amylxanthate would spontaneously combust when wet.

Undeclared and wrongly declared cargo, often associated with fires, is also of growing concern as shippers try to avoid paying higher fees for the transport of dangerous goods. Dolan highlighted the work of the Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS), established a decade ago, which monitors the risks posed by certain shipments and how they are handled and loaded. If done correctly, many dangerous goods can be safely transported in containers.

CINS has issued specific guidelines on the transport of certain goods, such as calcium hypochlorite, which can ignite spontaneously. According to the CINS incident report, this is believed to be the cause of the Jebel Ali container fire. it is believed that the cargo in the suspicious container was falsely described as disinfectant.