Bollards blamed

A pool manager fixed a ship on the basis that it could transit the new Panama Canal. The ships in that fleet were all of a size to be able to transit the canal and the pool manager believed that all the ships were equipped appropriately for Panama Canal transit. However it became clear that the nominated ship’s bollards were not strong enough.

The Panama Canal authorities would not let the ship transit. Urgent rectification work had to be done on board. The work would have usually cost about US$70,000 if done as part of scheduled maintenance but ended up costing US$200,000.

The owners claimed the additional costs from the pool manager and ITIC reimbursed the claim.