Global Claims Trends to Watch in Marine Insurance

Incidents of Fire and Explosion

Fire and explosion incidents are highly common and undoubtedly the most expensive claims in a marine insurance policy. According to the report of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS), in November 2022, 240,000 claims for marine insurance policies arose worldwide in the span of four years, i.e., from January 2017 to December 2021. Out of the total claims, more than 18% of the claims solely belonged to the ‘fire and explosion incident’ category. Earlier, fire incidents accounted for 13%, however, currently, it has increased by 5% in marine insurance policy claims.

Climate Risk

Climate risk is another factor for increasing global claims trend in marine insurance. The bad weather conditions have contributed to a total loss of 25% more than the losses reported in 2021. The drought in Europe again disrupted the shipping process compelling many vessels to navigate to other locations.

Due to the bad weather, various containers were lost at sea. The number of lost containers increased as of 2021. A total of 1629 cases of lost containers were reported which led to rising in marine insurance policy claims.

Impact of Sustainable Approach on Maritime Losses

The Major countries of the world are moving towards sustainable development and putting significant efforts towards de-carbonizing the major industries, including the shipping industry. However, the shipping industry is a significant contributor to Global Greenhouse Gas (GGG) emissions.

This sustainable approach, due to its expensive nature, which includes introducing costs to reduce the risk of operating such as machinery breakdown, investment in propulsion and vessel research and implementing the usage of alternative fuels may lead to higher expenses for the shipping industry by adding to the cost of doing business.

With the advent of low-sulfur fuel oil, insurance companies have encountered various machinery breakdowns and contaminated fuel claims. Machinery breakdown has become the primary cause of marine insurance policy claims.

Covid-19 Disruption

In recent years, shipping industries have caused significant losses due to major delays in shipping. Furthermore, due to Covid-19, the sector faced shortages of labour, leading to more failures and delays in operations.

Russia-Ukraine war

The Russia-Ukraine war, which commenced in the year 2014 and escalated in the year 2022, ultimatelyleading to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, is undoubtedly a significant factor in the global claims trends in marine insurance. The marine policy claims have seen a spontaneous rise as the shipping industry suffered a lot due to the war. The sector has reported approx $1 billion in losses due to the war.

Conclusion

Fire, climate change, war, etc., are some of the major global claims trends in marine insurance, contributing a large portion of marine insurance policy claims. In addition, the suggestions (net-zero emission) made by many influential leaders of the world are yet to show some concrete results. This is also a cause of the increase in claims. The suggestion of net-zero emission has also contributed to marine insurance policy claims in the recent few years.