Marine insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) has revealed figures showing how East and South-east Asia has become the worst accident blackspot - something illustrated by the Sanchi tanker fire off China this week.
Its analysis of data identifies the region as suffering the most total losses in 2016, with 34.
This equals 40% of all total losses worldwide.
The casualties occurred in Japan, Korea and northern China as well as southern China, South-east Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
AGCS looked at 25,898 shipping incidents including 1,186 total losses between January 2007 and December 2016.
It said global marine safety has generally significantly improved, with total losses dropping by 50% from 171 ships in 2007 to 85 in 2016.
But the figure for East and South-east Asian waters has declined far less over this decade, averaging 39 per year which equals one third of all worldwide total losses.
Captain Rahul Khanna, global head of marine risk consulting at AGCS, said: “Some have dubbed this wide region as a ‘new Bermuda Triangle’. I wouldn’t go that far but it is certainly the number one region worldwide for major shipping incidents.
"Not only are the seas here very busy, but they are also prone to bad weather and, although I can’t speculate on this event, some safety standards in the region are not always as high as one would expect from established international standards.”
Collisions account for the most losses over the past decade globally, with 6% or 72 vessels.
But fires or explosions make up 7% of all incidents in East/South-east Asia.
The tanker sector has seen just 15 total losses over the past decade around the world, according to AGCS.
