Last year created an interesting conundrum for cargo insurers. When the pandemic momentarily all but halted global trade, we saw our assureds report a reduction in values shipped and a corresponding increase in values at locations. This resulted in some cargo insurers having more static risk than moving risk. Thankfully, this was only a temporary blip but it did bring into sharp focus the growing accumulation of risk on vessels, at ports and at other static locations. While there are several tools available to monitor accumulation at static locations there is more uncertainty and less data available for cargo that is moving on vessels and while cargo is at the port awaiting loading. The Tianjin explosion in 2015 was a clear reminder of this reality. And the 4 August 2020 blast at the port of Beirut reinforces that more work needs to be done on assessing values at terminals and port facilities. But all that pales into relative insignificance when set against the tragic loss of life – 178 people died and more than 6500 were injured in Beirut. Surely that death toll alone is reason enough to urge terminal operators to manage the storage of dangerous goods to include proper and sufficient safety measures?

Onboard risk accumulation, particularly for containerships, continues its worrying trend. Larger vessels are carrying more boxes exposing the underwriter to larger potential losses – a trend seen recently in a growing number of onboard fires and an unprecedented number of containers being lost at sea. According to the World Shipping Council, an average of 1,382 containers were lost overboard on an annual basis between 2008 and 2019. Just two months into 2021, almost double that amount have been lost already. Between the One Apus and the Maersk Essen, a total of 1,816 and 750 containers were lost at sea during their respective voyages. These events perhaps highlight engineering complications when it comes to moving boxes on ships that are significantly larger than when containers were invented in 1957 and where weather patterns are constantly getting more aggressive. The recent events on both these voyages have also brought to light the lashing system on board. Containers are stacked on top of each other and secured to each other with twistlocks at their four corners. Lashing rods and turnbuckles are then used to secure the containers to the deck of the vessel. Physical forces endured by the ship going through a storm at sea are inevitably passed on to the containers which, as they are being stacked ever higher, creates an enormous momentum sometimes resulting in containers overboard or a container stack collapse. Cargo insurance underwriters have been and will continue to be impacted by these events and IUMI believes that although this is not a systemic threat, every container lost is one container too many. Therefore, we argue that adequate stowage techniques and proper container packaging is critical to having safe and secure ventures at sea for all parties involved.