Stronger Bulk Carriers

The International Association of Classification Societies, IACS, now has the unified rules for Bulk Carriers in place, with the Unified Requirement UR S25 being the most important. This requirement, now approved by all 10 IACS members, gives common class notations – BC-A, BC-B and BC-C – for all newbuildings. This milestone in bulk carrier design has drastically changed how strength is calculated for the vessels and ships ordered today will be considerably more robust. The question of hold flooding has been particularly focused on, thus creating a new generation of safer ships.
UR S25 is not the only new requirement. A number of initiatives have been introduced for existing and new ships. Several Formal Safety Assessments have been carried out and their common results arrived at. This has given rise to a special focus on hatch covers and ship sides, as well as increased scantlings for newbuildings.
For existing vessels, the enhanced survey requirements have been sharpened and the frames and brackets in single ship sides will in particular be measured and evaluated. The results of these surveys will be compared to today’s requirements and upgrading might be necessary if original scantlings are too small or corrosion has taken too high a toll. We strongly recommend owners that are considering purchasing second-hand tonnage to be observant of details in the stipulated unified rules. We can assist in this matter.
Some of the aforementioned Formal Safety Assessments were initiated by the IMO – resulting in a recommendation to strengthen ship sides in order to improve bulk carrier safety. The IMO Design and Equipment committee (DE 47) recommends double ship sides – but the last word on this will come from the IMO Marine Safety Committee (MSC 78) at a mid-May (2004) meeting.

Ulf Freudendahl
DNV Business Director,
Bulk Carriers
(Ulf.Freudendahl@dnv.com)

Date: 12 February 2008