JointHull Committee chairman Peter Townsend is in pessimistic mood ahead of theannual IUMI jamboree.
(IUMIset to explore cause of ‘unsustainable’ hull market)
“PersonallyI will always trade deductible for premium.”
Butas a working underwriter Townsend has a solution that is good for him.
“Wedo empathise with the situation shipowners are in. But when we get a brokermaking the case, we have to remind them that a few years ago, when shipownerswere having a good time, there was still downward pressure on rates.”
So don’texpect a result from Townsend to any special pleading
(Townsendprescribes deductible medicine to end market malaise)
“Evenif there is a clean record there can be big claims. That’s why owners buyinsurance. Nobody is immune from claims, otherwise everyone could go withoutinsurance.”
“Theolder I get the more I’m convinced that pricing risk on the basis of theportfolio and not the historical record of fleets is the only way we cansurvive.”
IUMIchairman Ole Wikborg has a good idea about what's wrong with the hull insurancemarket.
(Lookbeyond renewal for path to profitability, says Wikborg)
“Shipownerswho have the best risk-mitigation techniques are well known to underwriters andprobably secure pretty good terms already. If we have a multi-million dollarcat fines loss, the ship is not earning money and that’s not good for theowner, so we are all in this together.”
IainHenstridge of Amlin’s syndicate 2001 is hanging on to the dollars even if shipownerstake effective moves to reduce the risk of cat fines claims.
(Londoninsurers extend surveys to tackle cat fines risk)
Letshope Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding president, Takao Tanaka, is notspeaking from personal insight but just has a metaphorical turn of phrase whenit comes to mergers.
(MitsuiShipbuilding keeps merger options wide open)
“Let’ssay there are going to be higher lows going forward.”
Clearlythe talents of Penfield Marine co-founder Tim Brennan are wasted on tankershipping. Does President Obama need a new defense secretary?
(PenfieldMarine plots next chapter of growth story)
“Avondale’sships cost 16.5% more per deadweight tonne than NASSCO’s and took more thantwice as long to build, although they were 25% smaller.”
Butmaybe Tim Colton is overlooking that Avondale tankers are put together with suchloving care.
“Inpractice, all the steel can be foreign and all the machinery and equipment,including main engines and auxiliary engines, can be foreign and even someminor components of the hull, like stern tube castings, can be foreignmanufactured too, but it all has to be put together here.”
Is CharliePapavizas of the Winston & Strawn law firm suggesting that the Jones Act country oforigin sticker be should be changed to say assembled in the US?
(Samsungsupports troubled US yard in bid for tanker work)
“Theglobal economy depends on shipping, and shipping depends on London to make itwork.”
“Asthe market changes, so the industry changes. And so must the strategicrelationship between industry and government.”
Insightful.One can see how Patrick McLoughlin rose from the pit to the dizzy heights of UKtransport secretary.
(Bignames support UK government initiative to grow shipping industry)
