Page 49: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 1999)

Main Particulars

Classification RINA, DNV

Flag Italian

Length, o.a 328 ft. (100 m)

Length, b.p 288 ft. (88111)

Beam 56 ft. (17.10 m)

Circle 302 on Reader Service Card

May, 1999 49

Depth

Propulsion

Speed ...

Passengers

Vehicles .

DWT ... .35 ft. (10.7 111) .. .4 diesel engines ,40 knots (approx.) 800 175

Soft Market Equals Shortfall In Hull Premiums

Marine hull premiums are generating only 50 percent of the income the London mar- ket needs to meet commitments when there are casualties, a leading underwriter claims.

Peter Chrismas, Hull Underwriter at Lloyd's with the Wren Syndicates Management

Limited, said the market faced a premium shortfall when risks were increasing. "My view is that the premium pot is about half what is required to pay the attritional loses and the increasing incidence of larger casualty."

Marine insurers now faced the prospect of providing cover for ever bigger vessels — with a new generation of cruise ship carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew and containerships with major increases in TEU carrying capacity.

Chrismas outlined the state of the market at the Clifford Chance Richards Hogg Lind- ley Practical Course in Marine Insurance and Average held recently in London. He said, "We have experienced in recent years a period of low incidence of major loss. If this changes, there will be insufficient money flowing through the system to pay the losses."

Owners had taken advantage of a soft market and excessive capacity has driven down premiums, he explained. Chrismas saw little opportunity to underwrite marine hull busi- ness sensibly at the moment.

He said that the marine market is moving towards the aviation market with the poten- tial for the majority of the premium income generated by the class to be needed to meet one major claim. This happened in aviation with the Swiss Air disaster. According to

Nicholas Piatt from Gard (U.K.) Ltd., P&I Clubs were in a "relatively more advanta- geous position." There are fewer Clubs than hull underwriters and they do have the ability to ask members for more money — they may not like to do it but they can.

He agreed that the trend was towards bigger, more complicated claims.

Thanks to the softer market, the International Group had been able to obtain some reductions in its reinsurance costs. Piatt said that owners faced poor freight rates and

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