Ben Abraham News

The Poseidon Principles for Marine Insurance initiative has been launched to provide transparency on carbon emissions and support the shipping industry’s green transition. Marine insurers that launched the initiative on Wednesday, said that the Poseidon Principles for Marine Insurance "are a framework to quantitatively assess and disclose the climate alignment of marine insurers’ underwriting portfolios. ""This pioneering initiative makes marine insurance the first line of business to establish a sector-specific methodology to support the ambition of the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA)…

Ports and terminal operators are entering a new era where the operational threats they face – both old and new – will make a return to ‘business as usual’ increasingly unlikely, even once the pandemic finally subsides.Transition to new technologies and digitally enabled systems, addressing the impact of climate change, defending against cyberattacks and shifting geopolitics will couple with traditional supply chain and operational risks to change the face of the sector.According to Global Port Trends 2030…

Shipping industry executives say the increased security threat from cyber and data privacy breaches is the number one risk to its sector, according to a new ranking released today by Willis Towers Watson (NASDAQ: WLTW), a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company. According to Willis Towers Watson’s Transportation Risk Index the second- and third-most pressing risks affecting the shipping sector are globalization of the customer base, and third-party security vulnerabilities.

Despite protection and indemnity (P&I) Clubs announcing that they are trying to achieve on average 2% increases in premium, ship owners with good records can look forward to reductions in premiums for P&) insurance at the 2016 renewals, according to Willis Group Holdings, the global risk advisory, re/insurance broking, and human capital and benefits firm. “The International Group (IG) market has announced an average general increase of around 2%, with two or three clubs at zero, the majority around 2.5% and one club at 5%,” noted Willis in its P&I Review 2015/16 report. “It is almost certain however that market forces will prevail and lower actual renewal results will be widely achieved.

Insurance broker and Maritime London member Willis believes that ro-pax ferries are bearing an unfair share of costs allocated to passenger ships within the International Group of P&I Clubs' reinsurance pool. The broker's head of global P&I, Ben Abraham, told delegates at the recent Interferry annual conference in Malta that there was a compelling argument to differentiate between pure passenger ships and ro-pax ferries, where most carrying capacity is taken up by freight, because their catastrophe risk is so different.

More than 250 top-level delegates attended trade association Interferry’s 38th annual conference in Malta to debate the major factors affecting ferry operations around the world. Under a new format mixing presentations with panel discussions and audience input, the event underlined the diversity of political, technical, operational and commercial issues challenging the industry. Among several sessions focused on safety, a former airline pilot confirmed the alarming certainty of human error…

The upcoming Protection and Indemnity (P&I) renewal is poised to be the most challenging in a decade as a result of difficult economic conditions for ship operators, poor underwriting results and some of the largest claims in history, according to Willis Global Marine, a division of Willis Group Holdings plc (WSH:NYSE), the global insurance broker, in its annual P&I Market Review. The P&I market results last year (2011/12) showed a 13% increase in incurred claims, a 5.9% underwriting loss and only a 2.7% investment return. Total market free reserves increased marginally (4%) but tonnage increased by 9% over the same period. The market is therefore larger, but proportionately slightly weaker than the previous reporting period.