Regulating safe shipping is about to get harder

摘要

BIG changes to safety regulation tend to happen only after big things go wrong. From the first Safety of Life at Sea Convention after the 1912 Titanic disaster, to double hulls and other reforms after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, regulation sought to find out what went wrong and stop it happening again. Over decades, it succeeded. A recent report by DNV and Lloyd's List showed that the steady improvements in safety have continued: 58 ships were lost in 2020, compared with 132 in 2012. Total casualties, meanwhile, have remained remarkably flat despite a growing fleet size. In 2020 Lloyd's List Intelligence recorded 2,957 incidents. In 2012 the total was 2,325.