The International Union of Marine Insurance conference is the annual health check for the shipping industry’s risk cover and as such offers an important, if not at time impenetrably complex view of the sector as a whole. This week’s podcast offers up a clear explanation of everything you need to know about marine insurance from the people who understand it best. Consider this week’s edition your best, and perhaps only opportunity to learn the marine insurance sector in under 25 minutes

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FOR some, it’s Glastonbury or Coachella, others have Glyndebourne or Last Night of the Proms. In the world of marine risk, it’s the annual International Union of Marine Insurance conference, and this year’s insurance festival comes from Edinburgh with added bagpipes and ill-advised kilts worn by men with homeopathic claims to Scottish heritage.

The fact that global marine premiums jumped 8.3% in the past year is, granted, a niche headline announcement, but to those gathered in Scotland this week, it’s a case of turning the excitement factor up to 11.

Insurance-speak can sometimes make even shipping jargon sound comprehensible, but the plain English explanation is startlingly simple. More ships are being insured at higher prices, fewer of them are sinking, and everybody goes home happy.

Hull & machinery insurance has certainly witnessed something of a turnaround in the last five years. H&M underwriters - who up until that point had been losing money in the aggregate for around 20 years – are actually making some for a change.

Likewise, P&I clubs are currently publishing combined ratios of below 100% for the first time since the late 2010s. If you don’t know what we are talking about, keep listening and you will be expert by the end of the show.

Finally, it’s worth noting that Europe is holding its own even though London continues to cede ground to Asian insurers, and still has over half the market.

Our man Dave Osler is now on his ninth IUMI conference, and has been up in Edinburgh with the microphone talking to some of the main movers and shakers for this week’s edition.

Speaking on this week’s edition:

Chair of IUMI’s hull committee and chief executive and chief underwriter at American Club affiliate American Hellenic Hull Insurance company – Ilias Tsakiris

Chair of the International Group of P&I Clubs - Nick Shaw

IUMI vice chair of the Facts and Figures Committee and analyst/actuary of the Nordic Association of Marine Insurers (Cefor) - Astrid Seltmann