Loss Prevention Advice
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Over the past week, 10-16 June, four incidents of armed robbery against ships in Asia (all CAT 3 incidents).
All incidents occurred onboard ships while underway in the eastbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) of Singapore Strait (SS). The crew members were not injured in all four incidents. No items were stolen in three incidents while some engine spares were stolen in one other incident.
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What is the cargo?
As the name of the product indicates the cargo is made up principally of magnetite but also of Vanadium and Titanium, these last two elements at lower quantities (10-14%) as a solid solution. Knowing the elements is important because they are rare products and are considered important to steel making and other industrial processes. Cargo experts Roxburgh state that the material composition can vary greatly depending on the original formation process, which determines how the material is processed by the mine and in turn the final particle size distribution (PSD) and grade of the cargo. The cargo can be presented for loading as a lump or fines product with minimal processing, or as a much finer concentrate where gravity or magnetic processes have been applied to upgrade the valuable minerals.
Are there any risks?
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Group A cargoes are those which pose a risk from either liquefaction or dynamic separation. The IMSBC Code defines cargoes which may liquefy as:
“Cargoes which contain a certain proportion of fine particles and a certain amount of moisture. They may liquefy if shipped with a moisture content in excess of their transportable moisture limit.”
In such a cargo composed of fine particles and containing moisture, the spaces between the particles are filled with both air and water. Whilst at sea the cargo is subject to forces due to the vibration and motions of the vessel. These forces cause the particles to move closer together and reduce the size of the spaces (voids) between the particles, which is known as densification.
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Recommendations to help ship operators prevent blackouts and ensure that crews are prepared to respond effectively should one occur.
As explained by Gard, a blackout occurs when a ship suffers loss of electrical power from its main switchboard, typically due to an electrical or mechanical failure in the ship’s power generation, distribution, or propulsion systems. All blackout situations are serious and potentially dangerous. In a best-case scenario, a standby generator will be brought online to restore the main source of electrical power within seconds. However, a sustained blackout with loss of propulsion and steering control can eventually lead to collision or grounding with loss of life, damage to the environment and even total loss of the vessel.
The risk of a serious casualty increases when a ship is operating close to shore, near other ships or infrastructure like offshore wind turbines and particularly under adverse weather conditions. The increasing complexity of the integration of operating systems on modern ships has also been shown to challenge crews’ capacity to understand how these systems work. This can have a significant impact on how long it takes to recover from a blackout and restore propulsion and steering, and hence the severity of a blackout.