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Insurance Protection News

01 Mar 2019

Insuring the Marine Industry’s Risky Work Environment

File Image / CREDIT: AdobeStock / © Currahee Shutter

From high-traffic ports to bustling boatyards, and busy shipyards to expanding marinas, marine professionals operate in a challenging environment. They work on land, on or around water, and are exposed to all kinds of weather. And the challenges won’t ease up any time soon. Our nation’s ports continue to expand as trade surges. Add in increased commercial vessel traffic and recreational boating, and it’s clear that marine businesses have to be in shipshape condition. It means that the marine insurance industry has to stay on its toes too…

27 Feb 2018

Managing the Big Risks of Marine Construction

© Jillian Cain / Adobe Stock

A busy market, fraught with risk, needs specialized protection. The marine construction business is booming in the United States for many reasons. Nationwide, ports are expanding, deepening their channels to accommodate the bigger, so-called post-Panamax vessels. And, that means more than just deepening the channel. Docks, piers, cranes and other shoreside infrastructure need to be bolstered in order to stand up to heavier vessel impacts. Other infrastructure and bridges also need updating to be brought into the 21st century.

11 Sep 2017

“Blockchain” and the World of Marine Insurance

© the_lightwriter / Adobe Stock

If you’ve been working in the marine insurance industry lately, you will have heard about “blockchain” at some point; it is the electronic, distributed ledger, notoriously known for enabling the use of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether. But the blockchain technology’s utility goes beyond cryptocurrencies, potentially offering creative ways to solve other real-world problems. Within blockchain ledgers, the use of ‘smart’ contracts essentially converts contractual obligations into lines of computer protocols, which facilitate, verify, or enforce its performance.

21 Apr 2015

Logistics and Warehouse Insurance: Understanding its Complexity

Virginia Cameron

In October 2013, a fire blazed through Brazil’s Santos port, destroying six warehouses and the 180,000 tons of raw sugar inside Sugar Company Copersucar’s terminal. The fire hit all of the sugar giant’s warehouses at the port and left many exporters holding contracts for sugar with an empty bag. Following the fire, Copersucar declared “force majeure” to third party exporters who had contracts to ship the sugar through the now-burned terminal. Force majeure is a legal term referring…

29 Jul 2013

Continuing Demand for Strike Club Covers Marine Supply Chains

The Strike Club, an insurer of shipowners and charterers seeking insurance protection against delays in the marine trades, is experiencing a stronger uptake of its covers, whether for mutual entries or for the fixed-premium covers for war risks, loss of earnings (LoE) and bespoke delay risks. LoE business is particularly strong, and the club now offers an increased limit of $4 million each incident (up from $3.375 million). The club, now in its 56th year of trading, has an S&P rating of BBB+ with stable outlook. This was reconfirmed by the rating agency after it announced new criteria for the rating of insurance companies, including 14 marine mutual insurers.

06 Jun 2013

Following the Path of the Transport Revolution

Photo credit: Captain Katharine Sweeney

TT Club, established to fill a gap in insurance as the freight container revolutionized trade, celebrates 45 years dedicated service to the transport and logistics sector. In 1956, the first strengthened containers were loaded onto a spar deck of the converted tanker, Ideal X. This marked the fulfilment of a dream for American trucker Malcom McLean who had, since 1937, been working on how to reduce the long waiting hours for dockers to stow or unload his vehicles onto or off ships. The container age was quietly born.

29 Nov 2012

Underwriting Workboats

Moving 30 barges at once takes the sure hand of a tugboat pilot who knows how to maneuver a flotilla through the twists and turns of the Mississippi River. Lashed together, three across and 10 long, the barges cover more than twice the surface area of a modern aircraft carrier. Most would agree that the best river pilots are artisans, deeply skilled in methods to meet the challenges of that particular job. Equally skilled, however, are the tugboat captains in a crowded ocean harbor…

19 Sep 2012

Strike Club: Automation Cannot be Ignored

The Strike Club has warned that if the looming threat of a stevedores’ strike at 14 ports along the US east and Gulf coasts becomes a reality, it could be the precursor of further labour unrest, not only in the US but elsewhere, with extremely damaging repercussions for shipowners and charterers and, indeed, for the world economy. US seafarers have now joined forces with the stevedores under a new partnership, the Maritime Labour Alliance, which has received a message of support from the International Transport Workers’ Federation, according to media reports. The imminent resumption of critical negotiations between employers and unions will involve a number of questions and demands which must be resolved before the end of this month when the current agreement expires.

09 Sep 2008

Keys to Controlling Consequences in the Wake of a Marine Casualty

In the June issue of Marine News, we outlined the advantages of adding MOPS License Insurance protection to your deck and engineering officers' employee benefit package to help not only recruit but retain your key personnel in this very competitive employee environment. We pointed out that MARAD studies starkly declare that there are not enough qualified license mariners to meet the industry's needs and that 88% of respondents to a recent MARAD survey reported that licensed officer retention issues have negatively impacted their business operations. In response to the article, many Marine News readers responded that they take care of their licensed officers internally and react to any inquiries regarding marine casualties or reportable incidents as required.