Global shipping losses drop by 50% in 10 years — report

Losses incurred by ships during voyages have dropped by 50 percent in the last 10 years, according to marine insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE’s (AGCS) Safety & Shipping Review 2021.

A statement from Allianz on Tuesday, the publisher noted that 49 large ships were lost worldwide in 2020 with 48 of such cases in 2019. “This represents a 50% decline over 10 years (98 in 2011).

The number of shipping incidents declined from 2,818 to 2,703 in 2020 (by 4%). “There have been more than 870 shipping losses over the past decade.”

It noted that the shipping industry was resilient through the COVID-19 pandemic but the crew change crisis has long-term consequences.

At the Suez Canal recently involving a large ship blockage incident, the report said ever-increasing vessel sizes continue to pose a disproportionately large risk with costly groundings and salvage operations. High number of fires and containers lost at sea.

On insecurity across sea routes, it said the world’s piracy hotspot, the Gulf of Guinea, accounted for over 95% of crew numbers kidnapped worldwide in 2020.

The South China, Indochina, Indonesia and Philippines maritime region remain the global loss hotspot, accounting for one in every three losses in 2020 (16) with incidents rising. Machinery damage/failure was the top cause of shipping incidents globally, accounting for 40%.

Commenting, Captain Rahul Khanna, Global Head of Marine Risk Consulting at AGCS, said “The shipping sector has shown great resilience through the coronavirus pandemic, as evidenced by strong trade volumes and the recovery we are seeing in several parts of the industry today.”