After a seemingly ‘benign’ period, we have seen several serious container ship fires lately, including a large one leading to tragic loss of life. Congested ports in Asia and increasing traffic of large container ships around Africa are also a cause for concern.
Cargo-related fires on board container ships have long been a hot topic in the industry – and rightly so: In 2023, we saw on average one container cargo fire every 9 days, according to statistics from Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS). This is an increase compared with 2020, when the number was approximately one container fire every two weeks.
For the first few months of 2024, things were looking more promising, though. Up until May 2024, we did not experience any large-scale or high severity fires for a relatively long time. Then, on May 26 the container ship Northern Juvenile caught fire outside Singapore. On 19 July the Maersk Frankfurt caught fire off the west coast of India, a casualty that tragically cost a seafarer’s life. And just last week, the container ship YM Mobility suffered severe explosions and fire onboard while it was docked in Ningbo, China.
Why are container ship fires seemingly on the rise again – and what can be done to reverse the trend?
Please see attached file for details.
警惕集装箱船起火事件频发
在经历了一段看似 “平静 ”的时期后，最近又发生了几起严重的集装箱船起火事件，其中一起导致了人员死亡的严重事故。亚洲拥挤的港口和非洲周边大型集装箱船日益增加的运输量也令人担忧。
集装箱船上与货物有关的火灾一直是业内的热门话题——这也是理所当然的：根据货物事故通报系统（CINS）的统计数据，2023 年，平均每 9 天就会发生一起集装箱货物火灾。2020 年大约每两周发生一起集装箱火灾。与其相比，去年这一数字有所上升。
不过，在 2024 年的前几个月，情况看起来有所转机。在2024年5月前相当长的一段时间内都没有发生过大规模或较为严重的火灾。然而在5月26日，集装箱船 Northern Juvenile在新加坡附近水域起火。7月19日，Maersk Frankfurt在印度西海岸起火，一名海员不幸丧生。就在上周，停靠在中国宁波港的集装箱船YM Mobility发生严重爆炸并起火。
为什么集装箱船火灾似乎又在增加——怎样才能防范于未燃？
详细信息请参阅附件。
