Tag: marine insurance

The West of England Club continues to see collisions between vessels underway and at anchor in Chittagong anchorage area, with 50 such incidents recorded since 2013. The considerable increase of ships calling at Chittagong has brought a respective increase of incidents, which has attracted the attention of marine insurance industry in recent years.

Following few months since the announcement of the world’s first blockchain platform for marine insurance, the platform is now available for commercial use with a view to be expanded into other types of business insurance including marine cargo, global logistics, aviation and energy sectors.

The Danish Maritime Authority informed that after a new regulation, all speedboats with a hull length below 15 m, personal watercrafts/jet skis and similar vessels must now be covered by a 3. part liability insurance. If the vessel does not have insurance coverage, the operators will not be allowed to operate it.

Rolls-Royce and French insurer AXA Corporate Solutions have signed a Letter of Intent to explore ways to bring a new offering to the marine market, utilising Rolls-Royce Ship Intelligence systems and equipment and AXA’s risk analytics capabilities. The products will be addressed to current sailing and future autonomous vessels.

A joint industry project, comprising DNV GL, ECN, WMC, BREM, VanderHoekPhotonics, Deltares and other partners, seeks to reduce power-cable failures in offshore wind farms. These failures are the key risk affecting the offshore wind industry, representing about 80% of insurance claims.

On 8 May, US President Trump announced decision to withdraw the US from participation in the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and to re-impose US nuclear-related sanctions, which is expected to have significant implications for shipping trade with Iran and the insurance of this trade. 

Huatai Insurance Agency issued an alert informing that, in recent days, they have encountered cases of ships failing to sign SPRO agreement when calling Chinese ports, bringing about administrative penalty to owners, under article 33 of Regulation on the Prevention and Control of Vessel-induced Pollution to the Marine Environment.

​The increased number of reported cases of abandonment of seafarers is being highlighted at the 105th session of IMO's Legal Committee, currently underway, from 23 to 25 April. A joint ILO/IMO database recorded 55 such cases during 2017, against an average 19 annually during the preceding three years.

The insurance losses and liabilities arising from cyber risks is an increasing area of focus for both shipowners and their insurers, argues Mr. Adrian Durkin, Director (Claims) and Mr. Colin Gillespie, Deputy Director (Loss Prevention) at North P&I Club. 

Against the backdrop of encouraging global economic growth and an improved outlook for the shipping industry, the International Union of Marine Insurance provided an overview on the current state of the hull, cargo and offshore energy insurance markets, on the sidelines of its Spring Conference in Hamburg.