Carolyn Cohn News

Norwegian car shipping firm Wallenius Wilhelmsen estimates a $5 million to $10 million hit to core earnings from last week's U.S. Baltimore bridge collapse and expects the key ship channel to be closed for weeks, it said on Wednesday.The company said its vessel Carmen - which according to shipping data is among the biggest car carriers in its fleet - remained stuck in Baltimore's port, with the ship and its crew ready to sail as soon as the channel was reopened.Recovery teams opened a second channel enabling smaller vessels to navigate the Port of Baltimore on Tuesday…

Britannia, the insurer of container ship the Dali, is working with the vessel's owner and U.S. authorities on the investigation into the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, the insurer said on Thursday.The bridge collapsed on Tuesday after the Dali suffered a power outage and struck a pylon, causing huge disruption in the port."We are working closely with the vessel's owner and manager and the relevant U.S. authorities as part of the investigation into the casualty…

Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse could cost insurers several billions of dollars in claims, sources say, but it is too early to calculate the likely full financial losses of the tragedy that has shuttered one of the busiest ports in the United States.Six peopleare still missing after a collision with a Singapore-flagged container ship destroyed the landmark bridge on Tuesday, forcing the closure of the Port of Baltimore.With little clarity on when the port would re-open, insurers and analysts are now assessing the likely losses borne by underwriters across several product lines in

Insurance broker Marsh and Lloyd's of London underwriters have expanded a marine war insurance program backed by Ukraine from grain shipments to all non-military cargo, such as iron ore and steel, Marsh said on Friday.Marsh, Lloyd's and Ukrainian state banks launched an initial program in November to cut the cost of claims for damage to ships and crew transporting grain through the Black Sea corridor, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine two years ago."Expanding insurance to cover ships carrying all non-military cargo is extremely important for Ukraine…

War underwriters have raised the premiums they charge to U.S., British and Israeli firms by as high as 50% for ships transiting the Red Sea and some providers are avoiding such business due to targeting of the vessels by Yemen's Houthis, sources said.Attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthis since November have slowed trade between Asia and Europe and alarmed major powers. The Houthis say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians as Israel's war against Hamas militants in Gaza…

Commercial ships face increasing dangers at sea after armed groups have attacked and seized vessels in waters around the Red Sea and off the coast of Yemen, adding to perils for seafarers, shipping officials said on Wednesday.An attempted hijacking of a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday appears to have been carried out by armed Somali pirates and not Yemeni Houthis, despite the firing of missiles from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen afterwards, the Pentagon…

Dozens of ships are backed up around critical Danube arteries close to Ukraine's river gateways days after Russian drone attacks on the country's ports, shipping data showed on Tuesday.The river and its mouth are Ukraine's last remaining waterborne grain export route.Russia has attacked the agricultural and port infrastructure of Ukraine, one of the world's top grain exporters, in recent weeks after refusing to extend a year-old safe passage grain corridor brokered by the United…

Ship insurers said they are cancelling war risk cover across Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, following an exit from the region by reinsurers in the face of steep losses.Reinsurers, who insure the insurers, typically renew their 12-month contracts with insurance clients on Jan. 1, giving them the first opportunity to scale back exposure since the war in Ukraine started, after being hit this year by losses related to the conflict and from Hurricane Ian in Florida.P&I (protection and indemnity) clubs American…

Hiscox is committed to a planned insurance consortium providing cover for ships travelling through a safe passage from Ukraine, its chief executive said on Wednesday, as the Lloyd's of London insurer shares plunged on a first-half loss.The first grain-carrying ship to leave Ukrainian ports in wartime, following a deal brokered by Ankara and the United Nations, safely anchored off Turkey's coast on Tuesday and is due to be inspected on Wednesday.Trade body the Lloyd's Market Association…

Insurers will only be willing to cover ships sailing through a proposed corridor to get Ukrainian grain out if there are arrangements for international navy escorts and a clear strategy to deal with sea mines, underwriters and brokers say.Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations are expected to sign a deal later this week aimed at resuming the shipping of grain from Ukraine across the Black Sea.Ukraine's ports have been closed since Russia's invasion in February, which Moscow calls a "special military operation"…

Insurers have raised the cost of providing cover for merchant ships through the Black Sea, adding to soaring rates to transport goods through the region for vessels still willing to sail after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Ship owners pay annual war-risk insurance cover as well as an additional "breach" premium when entering high-risk areas. These separate premiums are calculated according to the value of the ship, or hull, for a seven-day period.Ship insurers have quoted the additional premium rate for seven days at anywhere between 1% to 2% and up to 5% of insurance costs…

Shipping companies that transport the world's coal are in the crosshairs of some financial backers who are cleaning up their businesses in the absence of a truly global drive by nations to renounce the dirtiest fossil fuel.In a sign of investors taking the initiative, six European firms collectively representing over 5% of the estimated annual $16 billion capital financing requirements of the dry bulk industry told Reuters they were either reducing their exposure to vessels that…

Insurers are bracing for a hit of about $1 billion from physical damage to offshore rigs and structures from Hurricane Ida, according to preliminary estimates from U.S. property data and analytics company CoreLogic.The estimate did not include losses from production disruption and could be revised over time, a spokesperson for CoreLogic said.The volume of oil shut in by the hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico rose to 1.7 million barrels per day of offshore output, up 240,000 barrels from Wednesday…

The blockage of the Suez Canal is likely to lead to large reinsurance claims, adding to upward pressure on marine reinsurance rates, James Vickers, chair of reinsurance broker Willis Re International, told Reuters.Formal investigations began this week into how the giant container ship Ever Given ran aground in the canal, shutting down shipping in the major global waterway for almost a week.The incident and its impact on hundreds of ships delayed in the canal would be a “large loss” for insurance market Lloyd’s of London…

The blockage of the Suez Canal for nearly a week will result in a “large loss” for Lloyd’s of London, its chairman said on Wednesday, as the insurance market recorded a 900 million pound ($1.2 billion) pretax loss in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The Canal is working to clear the backlog after the refloating this week of a stranded giant container ship. The blockage threw global supply chains into disarray.Bruce Carnegie-Brown told Reuters it was too early to estimate the exact loss…

A containership blocking the Suez Canal like a "beached whale" may take weeks to free, the salvage company said, as officials stopped all ships entering the channel on Thursday in a new setback for global trade.The 400-meter Ever Given, almost as long as the Empire State Building is high, is blocking transit in both directions through one of the world's busiest shipping channels for oil and grain and other trade linking Asia and Europe.The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said eight tugs were working to move the vessel…

The shortest shipping route from Europe to Asia remained blocked on Wednesday as 10 tug boats struggled to free one of the world's largest container ships after it ran aground in the Suez Canal.The 400-metre, 224,000-tonne Ever Given ran aground on Tuesday morning after losing the ability to steer amid high winds and a dust storm, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said in a statement.About 30% of global container shipping volumes pass through the canal each day, carrying everything from fuel to consumer goods.

Baker Hughes Co and AXA Group and 16 other companies recently quit work on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline and will not be sanctioned, according to a document the Biden administration sent to Congress last week which was seen by Reuters.Russian energy company Gazprom and its western partners are racing to build the pipeline to take Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, and hope to finish it this year. President Joe Biden believes the pipeline is a “bad deal” for Europe.Many U.S. lawmakers and officials say the pipeline would increase Russia’s political and economic leverage over Europe. The $11 billion pipeline, which would double the capacity of its existing duct, would bypass Ukraine through which Russia has sent gas to Europe for decades.

When Captain Will Whatley guides a ship through Arctic waters, he is starkly aware of what can go wrong.Double the manpower is needed to navigate. Lookout shifts are kept to just one hour, so sailors don't lose concentration and miss a mass of floating ice. Big icebergs show up on radar, but smaller, truck-sized "bergy bits"—even more dangerous—can be missed, the captain says.The cold can freeze equipment and the earth's magnetic field disrupts compasses. If anything goes wrong…

Insurance claims for damage to ships, goods and the port itself after a warehouse explosion last week in the port of Beirut were likely to total less than $250 million, reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter said on Monday.Overall insured losses - including property damage - from the August 4 port warehouse detonation of more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate may reach around $3 billion, sources told Reuters last week.The explosion killed at least 163 people, injured more than 6…

The world's top two container shipping groups Maersk Line and MSC are reviewing their Iran operations after the United States withdrawal from the international nuclear agreement with Tehran.The 2015 agreement, worked out by the United States, five other world powers and Iran, lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits to its nuclear program.U.S. President Donald Trump also instructed his administration to re-impose U.S. sanctions after a winding down period."MSC is reviewing its services…

British ship insurer North is setting up a new European Union subsidiary in Dublin in case Britain loses access to the single market after Brexit, becoming the first of these specialised providers to announce such a move. Insurers are making contingency plans after Britain’s vote to leave the EU means they could risk losing “passporting” rights that allow UK financial services firms to trade in Europe without the need for locally regulated entities. Britain dominates the global marine insurance market and losing access to specialist Protection and Indemnity (P&I) clubs like North could weaken other parts of the country’s multi-billion pound shipping services sector.

The reluctance of foreign banks to deal with Iran could complicate any compensation payments resulting from the collision last week of an Iranian oil tanker and a Chinese cargo ship, sources say. The tanker Sanchi, carrying 136,000 tonnes of highly flammable condensate oil, collided with the Chinese dry cargo vessel CF Crystal on Saturday in the East China Sea, causing an oil spill and a blaze that is still raging four days later. Liability has yet to be established but lawyers…