BULK CARRIER CARGO CLAIMS REVIEW 2025 LOSS PREVENTION DATA ANALYSIS 2 | BRITANNIA LOSS PREVENTION | DATA ANALYSIS Bulk carriers account for more than 40% of the world’s fleet capacity, the largest of any ship type. Similarly, within the Britannia Group, bulk carriers are one of the largest individual classes of ship entered. It is therefore important to identify and investigate any trends that are apparent with these cargo types to best mitigate their exposure to the Club and our Membership. We have subsequently reviewed claims data of the years 2021 – 2024 for all bulk carriers carrying bulk or breakbulk cargo. This period was focused on to avoid the distorting impact of the COVID pandemic and to obtain the most recent claims data available. Results showed (Figure 1) the most common claim types are: • shortage • physical damage • contamination • wet damage BULK CARRIERS PHYSICAL DAMAGE 29% SHORTAGE 50% WET DAMAGE 16% CONTAMINATION 5% FIGURE 1 Shortage and damage as a relative percentage SHORTAGE Shortage claims remain a substantial issue, with around 50% of registered claims relating to shortages. Whilst many of these are relatively low value, they place a substantial demand on Members and the Club to administer and process. It is perhaps unsurprising that paper shortage claims occur. The accuracy of measuring the quantity of bulk cargo loaded, transported, and subsequently discharged is imperfect. The two main methods used, draft survey and shore scale, are not comparing like with like, and differences are inevitable. Similarly, the process lends itself to sellers and buyers of cargo either over or under measuring cargo to boost margins, usually to the detriment of the carrier. There are also examples of actual shortages occurring, either due to poor cargo handling processes or deliberate pilferage. We have seen various examples of cargo spillage when using crane grabs, and many bagged cargoes contain desirable contents that are deliberately taken. 3 | BRITANNIA LOSS PREVENTION | DATA ANALYSIS As shortage claims made by receivers may often be without merit, it is useful to identify regions (and some countries) by percentage of shortage claims recorded. The below chart indicates quite obviously where the largest issues lie. NORTH AFRICA 30% EAST ASIA 18% SOUTH AMERICA 16% WEST AFRICA 13% EAST AFRICA 1% NORTH AMERICA 3% EUROPE 4% MIDDLE EAST 8% SOUTH ASIA 7% FIGURE 2 Regional locations of registered shortage claims as a percentage of the total North and West Africa combined accounts for almost 44% of our recorded shortage claims. Notably, Algeria and Morocco together account for 27% of our global shortage claims. In East Asia, China accounts for most shortage claims, equating to 14% of the global total. This can be partly explained by China’s dominance in the import of bulk cargoes. Within South America (16% of the total), Brazil is the notable outlier with around 9% of global shortage claims. Again, perhaps reflected in the vast size of the country. As noted above, many claims are without merit, occurring even when the carrier has loaded and discharged all cargo without incident. It is therefore imperative that the ship’s crew and ship owners do all they can to avoid errors and maintain vigilance when conducting cargo operations. Often the best defence against a claim remains accurate record keeping. We recommend shipboard draft surveys at each stage of cargo operations, with any substantial discrepancy from shore figures investigated