Skuld: Maritime Industry is Facing New Emerging Risks

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Tuesday March 31, 2015

The marine insurance industry, which for years has focused on risks such as the economy and weather, is now facing emerging technical, financial, and man-caused liabilities, says Skuld CEO Ståle Hansen

According to the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI), increasingly larger ships, along with more complex oil and gas drilling or construction projects, have created new technical problems to consider. 

In addition, even as the current environment of low oil prices and low interest rates has affected risk financially, it has become harder to maintain well-trained and qualified ship crews in the face of emerging technology. 

"As risk evolves, so insurers need to evolve and diversify, not only in terms of the products they have available, but the service they offer to support and manage those products," saidHansen.

As members of a particularity traditional part of the industry, insurers need to innovate, especially in the arena of human capital, he said. 

According to Hansen, insurers need to have more experts who can use a company's monetary capital effectively in creating products that suit client's needs, which has become more important as marine operations have diversified. 

Companies may also need to improve relationships with managing general agents around the world in order to gain more business.

"From crew, to agent, to broker, to insurer, diversity of platform combined with the best people, with access to the best insurers will dictate the winners and losers in marine insurance in the future," he said. 

Last year Ship & Bunker's Inside Opinion predicted that increasing insurance costs for ever-larger box ships could ultimately be the deciding factor that caps their size.