Safety at sea - trying to minimize risk in the dry bulk shipping sector

As De Jong explains, granular materials have void spaces caused by irregular particle shape. These void spaces may be filled with air and/or water. When cargo with moisture is carried at sea, cargo particles compress the void spaces and pressurize any free water present in the spaces. The moisture released from the mineral structure of some types of cargo increases the amount of free water in the cargo and can lead to a further increase in the pore water pressure. If the pore water pressure is high, it can overcome the friction forces binding the individual particles of material and the shear strength of the cargo falls to the point where liquefaction occurs.
“The bulk cargo then becomes a viscous fluid with flow ability,” De Jong told DCI. “The consequence is loss of stability due to the movement of liquefied cargo.”
The IMSBC Code provides guidance on the standards to be applied for safe stowage and the prevention of liquefaction. “The two key points are the determination of the Transportable Moisture Limit (TML), which is the responsibility of the shipper (declaration), and the determination of the actual moisture content of individual shipments,” he added.
If the actual moisture content portion of a representative cargo sample consisting of water, ice or other liquid expressed as a percentage of the total wet mass of that sample is higher than the TML, the cargo should not be taken on board for safety reasons.
“Based on experienced feedback, this procedure has not been fully implemented globally [even though] the IMSBC Code makes this implementation, rightfully, mandatory,” said De Jong.
The failure to take such precautions recurs again and again.The Intercargo missive back in October called on shippers and cargo interests to conduct an urgent review into the testing and safety processes involved in shipping nickel ore and iron ore fines which can liquefy after ship owners reported that “the rudimentary loading conditions in some of the exporting countries may have contributed to accidents.”
Several P&I clubs have also reported that owners and their ship masters were being asked to load cargoes that have moisture levels that exceed the Transportable Moisture Limit (TML) and Flow Moisture Point (FMP) figures specified in the IMSBC Code.
“Once the TML is exceeded it should not be loaded,” said Karl Lumbers, the UK P&I Club’s Loss Prevention Director.
The UK P&I Club claimed owners and masters were still being put under enormous pressure to load these cargoes. “Some cargo surveyors are ill-equipped to carry out the necessary surveys while other reputable surveyors who are recommended by the P&I clubs, suffer intimidation to the point of violence or threats to their families,” said the Club.
However, Captain Kuba Szymanski, Secretary General of Intermanager, the ship management organization, said the Code had been widely adopted and was already starting to prompt tighter implementation of loading conditions relating to iron ore fines, DRI, coals and other cargoes subject to liquefaction.
“This new regulation is actually helping bulk cargo operators as it can now be used to show charterers what is allowed and what is not,” he said. “A particular example is the issue of moisture in the cargo, which was always a matter of debate and some Masters were forced to load. Now they can refuse. This is already having a positive impact on bulk carrier safety.”
Peter Cremers, CEO of Anglo-Eastern, a leading third-party manager of bulk carriers, said regulations like the IMSBC Code needed to be supported more firmly by the industry and be more strongly enforced by relevant authorities.
“The industry is still laying fake keels to get away with not implementing new regulations and we need to move away from the ‘exploiting loopholes thinking’ into a ‘responsible industry thinking’ mindset,” he told DCI.
“Basically, we need more responsible players in the market. Recent losses are caused by cargo being loaded that’s unfit for transport into ships that are manned by crew that are either not aware of the issues or under pressure to accept.”
He said work could be done to improve the Code, for example by including more information on cargoes such as metal sulphide concentrates which were environmentally hazardous but were not classified as such in the schedule of IMSBC. But he said the most important factor in improving loading safety would be more responsible supply chain players. “There could be an improvement in compliance of the Code from a wider range of ports, terminals and cargo shippers from around the world,” he concluded.
Rob Lomas, Secretary General of Intercargo, said he was aware that many companies had refused to accept cargoes that
Rob Lomas, Secretary General of Intercargo.
might be subject to liquefaction because they were either not loaded in accordance with the international standards contained in the IMSBC Code or because Masters sensed that the testing and certification processes aimed at determining the moisture content of the cargo being offered for shipment lacked credibility.
“Masters have refused cargoes which appear to be highly suspect in terms of their moisture content vis a` vis their Shippers Declaration certificate or where Masters have been refused their right to use an independent third party cargo surveyor,” he said.
“Sadly, some shipowners may not have the relevant experience or knowledge in interpreting the IMSBC Code and may accept cargoes which are unsafe.
“But we need to receive the reassurances of the Competent Authorities in the exporting countries that their procedures and processes have integrity and transparency so that this message is received and most importantly, believed by the shipowners.
“Competent Authorities are the key to ensuring that seafarer lives are not put in peril. At the very least, any exporting country which cannot meet these requirements or which refuses to allow independent third-party surveyors is likely to find maritime transport for these cargoes more difficult to source.”
Adonis Violaris, Group Marketing Director of Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement which runs a fleet of some 60 bulkers, cited the recent losses associated with nickel ore and firmly concluded: “There should be mandatory sanctions and prohibitions applied against shippers, ports and facilities which load cargo in violation of the Code.”

In the wake of continuing high level of casualties involving bulk carriers, PSM Instrumentation Ltd has introduced a unique option to its Bulksafe^® intelligent WIAS (water ingress alarm system) that gives vessel managers, for the first time, the opportunity to receive critical alarm messages remotely within seconds of an alarm occurrence on board anywhere in the world.
This innovative development of the PSM Bulksafe^® system now offers a low cost global bi- directional satellite communication link between the WIAS central monitor and operator desk almost instantaneously. In the event of a water ingress primary alarm being initiated on board, a time-stamped and GPS position fixed message would be automatically triggered via a satellite D+ link from the vessel, direct to the vessel manager’s desk, warning of a potentially dangerous situation. Should a secondary WIAS warning be initiated, a further critical alarm message or SMS text message could be automatically sent to alert managers, and/or for example, transmitted also to coast guard or rescue services.
Since the communication is bi- directional, the operator can simply request a full function test of the WIAS and log the data at any time irrespective of the vessel’s duty or operations at the time. Any malfunctions can be rectified well in advance saving PSC (port state control) testing time and consequential delays. The PSC can be presented with a system health log that is inviolate and date and time stamped. PSM Instrumentation’s managing director Geoff Taylor commented that the speed of remote message transmission is clearly vital if a vessel operator is to be able to act to moderate in preventing an incident. There is a common misconception that satellite transmission is always instantaneous. Few vessels of this class have broadband and a message sent via satellite may take up to half an hour to be received; such is the complexity of ground earth station routing. In a critical
situation this would be inadequate and provide little practical benefit in a potentially hazardous incident. Therefore, a new but low-cost message routing protocol had to be established.After two years of product development this time lapse has been reduced to only a few seconds. PSM says it is delighted that this remote safety condition monitoring can now make a major contribution to the prevention of major accidents in this sector.
This concept has now been tested for two years on five vessels of the Nordic Tanker fleet, under the auspices of the US Coast Guard (USCG), on a PSM sister product called Clearview^®.    PSM was the
recipient of an innovation award in 2010 for this product after the trials, which were continuously monitored by the USCG, proved the viability and value of low cost satellite critical messaging and remote data acquisition. The same Clearview^® system is now available integrated into the PSM Bulksafe^® system, allowing operators to monitor critical WIAS safety conditions of their vessels as they occur. In addition, by simply linking signals from other machinery on board, into the Bulksafe^® CV interface, they can remotely ‘see inside’ the vessel’s plant and engine room operations in real time. The CV Analyser software supplied as part of the system enables both data logging and analysis of parameters such as fuel consumption/efficiency, OWS and bunker management.
Recognizing the importance of vessel
operating cost considerations in these difficult times PSM argues that the benefits of its Bulksafe^® CV system could be available at little extra cost for new installations because of a further innovation of their system. By the integration of its latest iCT intelligent digital sensor technology, PSM claims installation cost is vastly reduced. For example, on a typical seven-hold Panamax it says the savings alone on installation cost over conventional systems can be shown to significantly cover the cost of Bulksafe^® CV option.

 

Michael King