Resumen de Moving fluorspar: lessons learned from Hui Long
To ensure safe shipment of cargoes such as fluorspar, a ship's master should be given certificates relating to transportable moisture limit and total moisture content of the cargo immediately before it is loaded to his vessel. If the actual moisture content is in excess of the transportable moisture content, the cargo should not be loaded - unless the vessel is specially constructed or fitted out.
According to a Hui Long accident report published by the Hong Kong government's Marine Department: "The Master appeared to have not followed the company's cargo safety procedures for loading bulk cargo that may liquefy, by accepting on board a shipment of fluorspar cargo with the moisture content higher than the stipulated 8% without independent certification".
The shipper did provide the Transportable Moisture Limit (TML) of the fluorspar cargo before shipment as required by the Merchant Shipping (Safety) (Carriage of Cargoes) Regulation and the Code of Safe Practice for Solid Bulk Cargoes, 2004 (BC Code). A norm of 10% TML for bulk fluorspar was used by the shipper, without documentation support of any laboratory test. As such, it is possible that the fluorspar cargo at moisture content of 9.8% had exceeded the actual TML.
