German verification advisory Det Norske Veritas (DNV) has reported a 20% increase in machinery damage failures during 2024 for the maritime industry, a figure that’s likely to rise following last week’s on-board fire incidents.
In the first fire-at-sea incident from last week, an entire roll-on roll-off carrier, the Morning Midas, and all its cargo, was completely destroyed in what appears to be a lithium-ion blaze.
In a separate incident later last week, the MV Wan Hai 503 caught fire off India’s Kerala coast when dangerous cargo combusted under pressure.
According to DNV’s findings, engine room fires account for more than half of all marine equipment-related insurance claims, and Germany-based monitoring company, CM Technologies (CMT) argues that advanced diagnostics and monitoring solutions should be considered as essential safety tools.
“The maritime industry is facing a sharp rise in machinery failures and engine-room incidents that modern monitoring systems could help prevent,” CMT says.
Referring to recent maritime casualties, some of which have been fatal, Uwe Krüger, joint managing director at CM Technologies, says: “Engine and machinery failures continue to catch crews and operators off guard, but effective system monitoring will alert crews to looming catastrophe.”
Citing as an example the root cause of the engine-room fire aboard the cargo vessel Stride in January, Krüger says even small oversights, such as an incorrectly installed or damaged valve, can result in fatal accidents.
“Modern acoustic sensors could have picked up abnormal pressure signatures or vibration patterns as soon as the valve began to operate.
“That kind of early warning can be the difference between a manageable maintenance event and catastrophic failure.”
According to DNV’s Maritime Safety Trends 2014-2024 Preparing for Future Risks, published during the Nor-Shipping 2025 trade fair, the number of maritime safety incidents increased by 42% between 2018 and 2024, despite the global fleet growing by just 10%.
“Machinery failures remain the leading cause of shipping casualties, accounting for 60% of all marine equipment-related incidents. Ships aged 25 years or older are particularly vulnerable but failures are caused by issues that engine and machinery performance optimisers can easily detect,” says David Fuhlbrügge, CMT’s other managing director.
Referring to the fire on Ocean Navigator earlier this year, Fuhlbrügge says an effective monitoring programme could have identified contamination and debris in the auxiliary diesel’s lube oil before it caused the failure that sparked the fire.
“Advanced real-time monitoring solutions can detect early signs of wear, contamination, and mechanical stress, issues that can contribute to machinery failures and subsequent engine-room fires.”
Due to the increase in on-board fires, ship operators can no longer afford to treat condition monitoring as an optional extra, CMT says in a statement.
“Too often, we see cases where seemingly minor issues spiral into significant failures. By the time these problems are identified during scheduled maintenance, the damage is already done. The early-warning technology to detect these signs in real time already exists,” says Fuhlbrügge.
Commenting on the risks associated with older vessels, where maintenance is deferred or relies solely on periodic inspections, he adds that continuous monitoring can reveal the “subtle degradation” that leads to unexpected breakdowns.
While no single technology can eliminate every risk, the maritime sector has access to a range of diagnostic tools capable of measuring key performance indicators, such as cylinder pressure, fuel injection timing, vibration signatures and acoustic emissions.
By applying these tools in tandem with rigorous maintenance regimes, operators can detect wear patterns, combustion anomalies and lubrication issues that would otherwise go unnoticed.
“Machinery failures rarely happen overnight; they are consequent with a series of events over a period of time,” says Krüger. “Every percentage point of efficiency lost, every small increase in vibration, every piece of debris in the lube oil system is a warning sign. We need to pay closer attention to these details.”
CMT believes that what it is seeing in the field is aligning with DNV’s recent findings about the rise in machinery damage incidents.
“The emphasis on stricter maintenance and improved safety regimes highlights the urgency for ship operators to move beyond traditional inspection intervals and embrace a data-driven approach, says Krüger.
“It is clear, real-time insight and predictive diagnostics are key to preventing the kinds of failures that DNV warns about.
“Advanced condition monitoring is not just about saving money, it’s about protecting people, cargo, and the environment from the very real consequences of shipboard machinery failure.”
