Thomas Miller News

Condon Claims Management, a leading claims management advisory firms, has acquired US-based Marine Claims Associates LLC.The acquisition marks a strategic milestone for Condon Claims Management, which is part of the Thomas Miller Group, as the firm continues to broaden its presence in the US market, enabling it to offer greater claims management and adjusting services in the maritime, logistics, energy and construction sectors.Crucially, Marine Claims Associates’ vast experience…

International freight insurer, TT Club, announces the appointment of Kamel Tlili as Chief Executive of its Singapore branch as Yiah Soon Ng retires after leading Thomas Miller’s Singapore office since 2009.After five years as Chief Executive for TT Club and having led Thomas Miller’s Singapore operations for 15 years, Yiah Soon (YS) Ng has announced his retirement. He is succeeded as Chief Executive by Kamel Tlili, TT Club’s Regional General Manager Asia Pacific, who took over…

The UK P&I Club appointed Richard Offord as the new Chief Executive of the Club’s Singapore Branch. Richard will replace Yiah Soon Ng (YS) on December 1, 2024, as YS will retire after leading the Singapore office for more than 27 years. Offord joins the office from his previous position in London and will report to the Club’s Regional Director for Asia, Andrew Jones.Richard joined Thomas Miller in 1997 and, most recently, held the position of Claims Director, with a particular focus on ICA claims and Charterers’ cover…

Maritime charity Stella Maris is committing funding “for as long as it takes” to provide urgent support to the thousands of seafarers in Ukraine and those regularly making the perilous journey to and from its Black Sea ports.Seafarers working on vessels that have to navigate Russian threats through the Black Sea face numerous challenges, not least mental health issues associated with life-threatening risks.And in Ukraine itself, seafarers have not been able to work for more than two years because of the country’s wartime rules…

Irving Shipbuilding has awarded Bardex Corporation a contract for a 165-meter shiplift drydock to support its River-class destroyer shipbuilding program for the Royal Canadian Navy.With a capacity of over 27,000 metric tons, the OmniLift Shiplift will include fifty-six 575-metric ton chain jack lift stations. According to Bardex, the shiplift drydock will be the largest in the Americas.“A reliable, long-term shiplift asset is vital to the success of the River-class program and partnering with the world class Bardex Corporation to implement this project is the first step.

Transport and logistics insurer TT Club announced Thursday that Kevin King has stepped into the role as CEO, succeeding Charles Fenton effective August 1.Originally based in the U.S., King has long held positions within Thomas Miller managed businesses, and transferred to London in 2015 to lead the Europe, Middle East and Africa region at TT. More recently he served as the insurer’s Chief Operating Officer and acted as deputy CEO to over the last year.Fenton said, “Kevin is well-positioned to lead TT into a challenging future.

Ann Waite has been elected to chair the Association of Average Adjusters for the year 2024-25. She is the first woman to hold the office in the history of the association, which was founded in 1869.At the annual general meeting of Fellows on May 8, 2024, Waite was also elected an Honorary Fellow of the Association, which she has served as secretary for 11 years.She succeeds Burkhard Fischer, a director of Albatross Adjusters, Limassol.Waite runs a London-based independent claims management company…

Freight and logistics insurer TT Club said it has appointed Kevin Blunsum as its first Chief Technology Officer.Blunsum is a highly experienced and well-respected member of the London-market insurance community. Over his 30-year career he has held a variety of positions engaged in insurance technology development and change management with Deloitte, EY, Accenture, and more recently with Aspen Insurance as Director of Business Transformation.Blunsum will be working closely with Lisa Gibbard…

Handling of steel boxes throughout the shipping, ports and logistics supply chain has historically grown exponentially, putting strains on a range of operational procedures and the physical hardware employed to handle the steel boxes, particularly onboard ships. A recent webinar organized by the Thomas Miller managed insurance mutuals, container freight specialist TT Club and protection & indemnity insurer, UK P&I Club, revealed the diverse range of factors important to safe container ship operations and the security of the container stacks they carry.

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…

The UK P&I Club, a leading provider of P&I insurance and other services to the international shipping community, emerges from the renewal to start the new policy year with total mutual owned tonnage of 139 million gt, slightly higher than at the start of the previous policy year. Combined mutual-owned and chartered tonnage now stands at around 239 million gross tonnes. The UK Club understands that many operators are under financial pressure. The Club therefore continues to seek ways of delivering P&I cover at a competitive rate and did not announce a general increase again this year. However, safeguarding the Club’s future financial stability through disciplined underwriting remains a priority. Of those fleets leaving the Club at this renewal, almost all had adverse loss records.

UK-based international provider of insurance services Thomas Miller has acquired international marine consultancy business Brookes Bell for an undisclosed sum. Brookes Bell is a marine technical and surveying consultancy with offices in Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. It has served the marine and energy industries since 1903, providing specialist services in areas including emergency response, casualty investigation, salvage and wreck removal operations, scientific cargo expertise, forensic engineering and expert witness services. The firm also provides research and development of ship design support to enhance maritime safety and technology and employs a renowned group of marine engineers…

Maritime Environmental Resource Center will no longer conduct Type Approval Certification testing of ballast water management systems. The Maritime Environment Resource Center (MERC) was established in 2008 by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) to facilitate the development and adoption of Green Ship and Green Port innovations with a primary goal of expanding on over twenty years of research addressing the issues of ballast water invasive species. Invasive species introduction through the release of ship’s ballast water have enormous ecological and economic impacts on coastal waters around the world.

The UK P&I Club said it has agreed at its board meeting on November 19 to a mutual premium discount of 3 percent on the total mutual call for the 2015 policy year. In the current shipping environment, the board has decided it is prudent to revise the club’s approach to the general increase. For the 2017 renewal, the club will not be seeking a standardized general increase. Instead, premium will reflect the specific risk a member brings to the club for the coming year. With the overall club underwriting results largely in balance, the 2017 policy year renewal will focus closely on individual member’s underwriting performance, while still being mindful of the difficult shipping markets in which many members operate.

The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) is hosting a Security Seminar in London on Thursday, November 10, which will focus on human factors in modern maritime security. Sponsored by Subsea 7 and Technip, the event is a continuation of IMCA's new series of mini-seminars – niche events tailored to tackle specific topics. “The day-long seminar at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in South Kensington will provide an invaluable opportunity for all concerned to understand the impact of human factors on security in key areas of the offshore marine contracting industry – both in the oil and gas, and renewable energy sectors,” explained Richard Benzie, IMCA’s Technical Director. “It will cover both the global risk to people, and the internal cyber security threat.

BIMCO has published three standard novation agreements that provide a legal framework to change one of the original parties to a contract. Two of the agreements cover time charter parties; one provides for a change of charterer and the other a change of owner. The third agreement deals with a change of buyer under a shipbuilding contract. Corporate changes such as restructuring, sale of a company or sale of part of a company’s interests may make it necessary to replace an original contracting party. This is achieved by substituting, or “novating” the contract. Until now there has been no standard form of contract for this purpose and parties have had to draft their own provisions.

London, 11 May 2016 – The UK P&I Club (“The UK Club”), one of the leading shipping protection and indemnity mutual insurers, announces its financial results for the year ended 20 February 2016. Alan Olivier, Chairman of the UK P&I Club, comments, “2015 has proved to be another good year for the Club culminating with a very positive renewal. On the financial side, we ended the year with a small surplus despite a loss from our investment portfolio. This positive result in a poor year for the investment markets can be attributed to our disciplined approach to underwriting. “The combined ratio for the financial year was 92%; a very creditable result in the prevailing soft market conditions.

The boards of the Britannia Club and the UK P&I Club announced today that the two groups are in merger discussions.   The boards of the Clubs will now begin a process to determine whether the merger is possible and delivers appropriate benefit to their respective Memberships. Ultimately, the decision on whether to proceed with a merger will be decided by the Members at Special General Meetings to be convened later in the year.   The talks are concurrent with discussions between their managers, Thomas Miller and Tindall Riley, both international providers of insurance and professional services, which would also lead to a merger of the respective businesses should the Clubs decide to merge.

The UK P&I Club, a provider of protection and indemnity insurance,  agreed at its board meeting Monday that the General Increase for the 2016 renewal will be 2.5 percent. In announcing the increase, the UK Club board said it is mindful of the continuing stress in certain sectors of the shipping market and has therefore set the General Increase for 2016 below the level of claims inflation, adding the General Increase reflects the club’s commitment to maintain balanced underwriting and put the club in the best position to meet the challenges of the future. Separately, in recognizing the challenges faced by its members and the club’s capital position, the board has declared a Mutual Premium Discount of 2.5 percent on the total mutual call for the 2014 policy year.

The UK P&I Club one of the leading shipping protection and indemnity mutual insurers,  has awarded Tobias Rennekamp the  Robin Travis Scholar for 2015. Tobias will spend three months in the Thomas Miller London office and the offices of selected lawyers, surveyors, insurance brokers and other shipping, transport and insurance businesses. Tobias is currently an Assistant Operations Officer at Liberty One Shipmanagement GmbH & Co KG in Bremen and is actively involved in all aspects of managing its fleet of handy size bulk carriers. The Robin Travis Scholarship programme is tailored to provide both a practical and theoretical knowledge and experience and to build on the Scholar’s commercial experience.

Thomas Miller the international insurance, professional and insurance services provider announces the acquisition of the partners and staff of specialist marine law firm, Davies Johnson & Co of Plymouth. The acquisition brings an additional six fee earners to the Thomas Miller Law Ltd (TM Law) team. The firm will operate from Plymouth and London in addition to TM Law’s main office in Newcastle, where it forms part of the Group’s claims handling and risk management consultancy business. Davies’ Johnson’s existing clients will continue to be able to instruct the Plymouth firm, and there will be no change to the service they enjoy currently.

The UK Defence Club, the provider of FD&D (legal costs) insurance to the maritime industry, announced its financial results for the year ending February 20, 2015. According to the club, highlights include 3,700 ships covered, total assets of £56.5 million; combined loss ratio of 94 percent; free reserves £28.4 million; 167 million GRT, increase of five percent in owned tonnage; net claims incurred, including claims provision, increased to £13.1 million from £10.2 million in 2013/14; and 2015 Renewal – zero percent general increase and introduction of continuity credits. UK Defence Club chairman Michael Lykiardopulo said, “I believe that by announcing a zero percent general increase for the 2015/16 policy year…

The UK P&I Club board has agreed at its meeting on October 27, 2014 that the general increase for the 2015 renewal will be 6.5%. The premium rating increase is in addition to any change in the cost of the international group reinsurance premium for 2015 for the mutual members, which will be determined next January. In setting the general increase, the UK Club board said it is mindful of the balance between the needs of the club’s members and its commitment to maintaining balanced underwriting and sound financial planning. The 2013 year has proved to be one of the most expensive claims years of the last two decades, the club said. Alan Olivier…