Paratus Launches Bunker Price Risk Insurance

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday April 28, 2021

Guernsey-based Paratus Maritime Insurance has launched a new product to protect shipping companies against the risk of sharp bunker price rises.

The firm has bound "the world's first insurance policies for shipping companies to protect their balance sheets against fuel-price risk," it said in a statement on its website on Tuesday.

Bunker prices could rise dramatically later this year in the event of a healthy recovery in oil demand from the lows of the COVID-19 pandemic. Marine fuel demand has already recovered much of what was lost last year, but a similar recovery in demand from aviation and road transport could lead to a jump in crude prices.

The policies have been launched in conjunction with Gibson Shipbrokers and Price Forbes & Partners.

"Paratus's parametric fuel price insurance products are providing a valuable risk management solution for industrial companies that consume large amounts of fuel, and are the first of their kind commercially available in the sector," the company said in the statement.

The firm plans to launch similar policies covering freight-rate risk 'soon', it said.