Asian shipowners endorse a marine hull insurance facility

Asian shipowners have endorsed the creation of a marine hull insurance facility in the region.

Called the Asia Marine Consortium (AMC), the project is aimed to link with the Asia Pacific Hull Insurance Syndicate (AHIS), a syndicate of 12 insurer members from Asia, Australia and London which has been in existence since 1989, to give a unified underwriting market across Asia.

AMC has embarked on a number of trips in Asian capitals like Manila, Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, Hongkong and Bangkok, to promote the consortium's existence to as wide an audience as possible from shipowners and operators, insurance brokers and underwriters in the region.

Members of the Asian Shipowners Forum (ASF) have acknowledged the insurance facility, saying that the AMC initiative has met their basic requirements during the ASF's recent insurance committee meeting in Seoul.

AMC statistics showed that a portfolio by country has a total of 309 vessels or an aggregate tonnage of 6.625 million DWT available in the region. AMC has an underwriting capacity of $25 million.

However, promoting the marine hull insurance facility to Asian shipowners has its own hitches. Proponents of the AMC said that the differing degree of legislation and the state of insurance market are two of the leading considerations that may hamper its success.

"In differing degree many countries have legislation that restricts the shipowner insurance buyer to make maximum use of the local insurance market irrespective of their ability to underwrite hull business, before seeking insurance cover from overseas," according to the project's briefing to the ASF.

Proponents said that it must consequently seek to reinsure these local insurance companies to "underwrite the business rather than underwrite the business directly."