Nickel ore liquefaction casualty insurance claims top $200m

Lewis Hart, executive director, Marine Asia – Pacific for Willis (Singapore), said that they were involved in insurance claims related to the loss of the Vinalines Queen and these were around $50m in total. The 2005-built supramax bulk carrier was carrying 54,400 tonnes of nickel ore from Morowali port to Ningde port in China when it went missing on 25 December, 2011 with loss of all but one of its 23 crew.

With at least three other casualties caused by nickel ore cargo liquefaction in 2010, with a death toll 66 including the Vinalines Queen, insurance claims are mounting. “Total nickel ore casualty claims to date are in excess of $200m,” Hart told the Maritime Indonesia 2013 conference in Jakarta on Wednesday.

If the loss of the 48,891 dwt, 1983-built Harita Bauxite on 17 February is proved to have been caused by nickel ore liquefaction this figure is set to rise further.

A move that could help stem the tide of tragedies is a plan by Indonesia to ban the export of unprocessed nickel ore from 2014.

“We hope Indonesia benefits from the doing the processing in Indonesia. From an insurance perspective there will be a benefit,” he said.

Liquefaction of nickel cargo loaded in Indonesia and bound for China was also blamed for three casualties in 2010. The Jian Fu Star sank on 27 October 2010 with the loss of 13 lives. The Nasco Diamond suffered 21 fatalities on 10 Novemberof the same year, while the Hong Wei went down on 3 December 2010 and 10 crew perished.