Little disruption to shipping services Alan Peat WAR RISK rates have been bumped up on cargoes to-and-from “the hot spots” in the Gulf area, according to insurance underwriter Dave Keeling. “The normal rate is 0.05, but in certain areas these now vary between 0.1 and 0.375. “The question is, though, at these rates, would you insure?” In the latest schedule from the war risks rating committee at Lloyds of London (released to FTW by the SA Insurance Association), the following rates were those fixed under “institute war clauses” for sailings and/or flights after March 20. For the Gulf - east of 52 degrees east, but west of 56 degrees 10 minutes west - the rate under institute war clauses is 0.1. For the Gulf - west of 52 degrees east, but south of 28 degrees north - a rate of 0.25 is applied. However, under “institute war clauses sending by post” it’s 0.375. For the Gulf - north of 28 degrees north, and including Iraq itself the rate is declared as “H/C”. That means that the voyage and/or flight is “held covered” - and will be rated at underwriters’ discretion. However, despite these rather disturbing looking increases, there is little that should bother SA shippers, according to Karl Kisteman of Associated Marine. “I don’t think that South Africans export or import much with Iraq,” he said. “However, we do trade with other neighbouring countries - but the rates for those are not sky-high.” At the same time, shipping lines seem to have little concern about the danger of war risks in the Gulf region at the moment, according to Barry New, m.d. of P&O Nedlloyd. “Even more traffic is going through Suez just now,” he said, “and there has been very little disruption to services that I know of.” And Iraq itself, as the centre of the conflict, holds little problem for shipping lines, New added, with almost all voyage rotations for international shipping lines not including Iraq anyway. “As far as I can see, there are no other ‘no-go’ areas at the moment and are unlikely to be so unless the conflict spreads.”
