08.15-08.55

Registration and Coffee in the Pre-Function Area sponsored by

PLENARY SESSION

08.55-09.00

Welcome Address: Daniel Creasey, Managing Director, Cannon Events

09.00-09.20

Keynote Address: State of the Market

With capital rising and rates falling globally, the marine insurance market is once again an attractive place for investors as returns have climbed in the past few years. However, this session will consider the impact of events like the Baltimore Bridge collision, the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and a growing gap between premium income and claims payments and ask whether rates will continue to slide, or whether the market has hardened once more, referencing recent figures from both Lloyd’s and IUMI.

Presenter:  Lars Lange, Secretary General, International Union of Marine Insurers (IUMI)

09.20-10.10

Panel Discussion: Risk Transfer in an Increasingly Volatile World

Maritime transportation, offshore construction and support, trade and logistics companies are becoming increasingly complex, vertically integrated and often have risk transfer needs beyond traditional individual marine insurance products in multinational environments. Do insurance buyers have frustrations in the offerings of the marine insurance industry, or does it meet their needs? Do insurance brokers and insurance companies have flexibility in structuring a suitable risk transfer offering, and in what ways can insurance evolve further to enable and encourage measured risk taking?

Moderator: Bozidar Ljubisavljevic, Regional Marine Chief Client Officer – Middle East, Africa and Asia, Howden Insurance Brokers

Panellists: Elisabeth Baker, Head of Ports and Terminals and Marine Liabilities, Asia, Aon

Amanda Hastings, Head of Claims, APA Claims and Incident Management, Maersk

Ulrich Kuetter, Head of Global Insurance Solutions, Schenker Global Management Services

Paul Hackett, Head of Marine, Energy, Engineering, Property D & F & Delegated, APAC & MENA, Canopius

10.10-10.50

Panel Discussion: What Will be the Long-Term Impact of the Dali Collision?

From the moment the Dali collided with a bridge in the Port of Baltimore, the marine industry has known that an expensive claim was coming. A year on from the incident, we look at the likely long-term impact on the P&I market. The questions for this session are whether the owners will be able to limit their liability and whether the limitation model remains relevant in today’s world. Ultimately, will this claim be a market turning event?

Moderator:

Panellists: Michael Walls, Marine, Cargo and Logistics Leader – Asia Managing Director, Marsh

Alex Gray, Director, Head of Marine, Price Forbes Broking (Asia)

Capt. Nitin Chopra, Senior Risk Consultant – Marine Risk Asia Pacific, Allianz

10.50-11.10

Presentation: The True Cost of Decarbonisation

In the past year there have been a series of stack collapses, most notably around the Cape. Whether this is a consequence of climate change and worsening weather patterns, it is hard to say. Are we seeing the first manifestations of climate change in practice? As European consumers demand more batteries to reduce carbon, for example, do we really know the ultimate price we are paying to have cheap goods shipped from Asia?

Presenter:  Capt. Siddarth Mahajan, Senior Loss Prevention Executive Asia, Gard (Singapore)

11.10-11.40

Coffee and Networking in the Pre-Function Area

11.40-12.00

Presentation: Will E-bills of Lading Finally be Accepted?

E-bills of lading have been part of the shipping world for some time, however they are not universally used and take-up is still slow. Now the Singapore government is launching a major initiative to drive through wider acceptance and use of the e-bills. This session will hear from the government and the IG on their hopes for the industry to embrace this technology.

Participants: Loh Sin Yong, Senior Principal Consultant, TradeTrust Sectoral Transformation Group, Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA)

Camilla Slater, Senior Secretariat Executive, International Group of P&I Clubs

12.00-12.40

Panel Discussion: Wording Matters in a War

The wording of clauses is always imperative in ensuring the insured gets what they want, but not more than the insurer intends. When war breaks out, the arguments on wordings will often follow. So, in this session, we discuss the changes to wordings since the Houthis started attacking vessels in the Red Sea and ask whether they are now fit for purpose in an increasingly hostile world. Will exclusions and buy backs work, or will insurers be forced to change their tune thanks to increasing competition for business?

Moderator: Amanda Bjork, Head of Claims, Cambiaso Risso Asia

Panellists: Julien Rabeux, Head of Claims – Singapore, West of England P&I Club

Rupert Banks, Head of Specialty Claims, Asia Pacific, NorthStandard

Anders Hovelsrud, Insurance Director, DNK

Kirill Patyrykin, Managing Director, Sun Marine & Trading

12.40-13.10

Fireside Chat: Safeguarding the Crew in a War

After the breakout of war in Ukraine and now with the Red Sea attacks, crew are being placed in highly dangerous positions, with little choice but to follow their master’s orders. The question is whether owners, charterers or cargo interests are placing enough emphasis on crew welfare and how can the insurance industry support their good work. 

Participants: Jacob Damgaard, Divisional Director – Head of Loss Prevention, Britannia P&I Club

Capt. Hari Subramaniam, Regional Head – Business Relations, Shipowners’ P&I Club

13.10-14.00

Lunch in the Pre-Function Area

Stream 1

Stream 2

14.00-14.40

Panel Discussion: Cargo Rates – A Double Whammy

Panel Discussion: The Impact of an Oil Spill

Only five years ago the cargo insurance market was in the doldrums, with Lloyd’s imposing restrictions on insurer behaviour to force market discipline. Since then, rates have risen, but appear to be turning down once more as new competition hots up. Added to that, as the panel discusses, freight rates are dropping and commodity rates have fallen so the insured values are lower, too. Is it all building to a perfect storm?

Three years ago the dark fleet was almost non-existent, but the war between Russia and Ukraine changed all that. Now, the marine sector faces the very real possibility of a major pollution incident involving a sanctioned cargo or vessel. It is a particular issue in Asia where vessels and their cargoes are not necessarily checked against sanctioned lists. There have been a number of near misses in the past year and in this session, we take a look at these to see   what can be learned for the future.

Moderator:

Panellists: Rita Yu, Associate Director,  Marine, Gallagher

Alexandros Ampatzis, Head of Marine, Asia Pacific, Tokio Marine Kiln

Moderator: Tony Paulson, Head of Asia and Corporate Director, West of England P&I Club

Panellists: Benjamin Seow, P&I Claims Director, Asia Pacific – Greater China Lead, NorthStandard

Darren Waterman, Engagement Director, Oil Spill Response

David Campion, Head of Singapore Office, Senior Technical Advisor, ITOPF

14.40-15.00

Presentation: Project Cargo Needs to be Special

Presentation: The Growing Threat of the Dark Fleet

Project cargo is routinely transported on bespoke vessels under HEAVYCon clauses and requires specialist equipment and people to handle it. However, there has been a recent trend towards putting these expensive cargoes on ‘normal’ vessels where the charterers’ contracts may be more suited to soya beans than to part of a wind turbine, for example. This presentation examines the scale of the problem and considers how insurers should be reacting.

The ‘grey fleet’ or ‘dark fleet’ represents a growing threat to the maritime industry, presenting a significant compliance challenge to those looking to avoid dealing with bad actors, including marine insurers. These vessels obscure their activities through tactics like AIS  manipulation and spoofing flag-hopping, and covert transhipments, and are frequently linked to illicit activities such as sanctions evasion, smuggling, and unregulated operations.

Presenter: Dr. Nick Chapman, Head of Cargo and Logistics, Asia, Aon

Presenter: Jean-Charles Gordon, Ship Trackingn Director, KPLER

15.00-15.20

Presentation: All in a Name – Can Technology Tackle Mis-declared Cargo?

Presentation: Subrogation in Marine Claims: Insurer’s Perspective

An age-old problem for the cargo sector, misdeclaring cargo shows no sign of abating, despite the industry’s best efforts to end the habit. It seems cargo owners do not want to pay the proper price for dangerous or flammable cargoes and will continue to mislabel their goods. The question to be answered here is whether technology, such as artificial intelligence, can help root out the mislabelled cargoes and put an end to vessel losses and container fires?

Successful subrogation recovery in Marine Claims leads to reduction in loss ratios of Insurers but it’s not a cakewalk. In this session, we will discuss various challenges faced by Cargo and Hull Insurers in effecting recoveries from negligent parties and what policyholders think about it. Looking at the efforts, costs, and benefits, should the Insurers be waiving subrogation rights?

Presenter: John Gow, Forensic Marine Expert, Hawkins & Associates

Presenter: Roshan Kumar, Deputy Manager, Marine Claims, India International Insurance, Singapore

15.20-15.50

Coffee and Networking in the Pre-Function Area

15.50-16.10

Presentation: Seafarers – Easy Pickings for the Authorities?

Presentation: Will Technology Influence Insurance Rates?

The criminalisation or abandonment of seafarers continues, whether it follows a pollution incident, the discovery of drugs or, indeed, stowaways. None of these risks are new, but it may appear that as an industry, little is being done to protect the seafarer and the master in particular. This session takes a look at the positive moves the industry is making and asks whether insurers have a greater to role to play in supporting owners.

Will technology influence insurance rates?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is clearly here to stay and is already in use across most workplaces in the world. But how will it impact marine insurance rates? Could it unintentionally influence rates and drive the market either up or down? Can it help insurers understand the complexities of today’s risks and to more accurately price policies? This session reveals exactly what role AI is playing in insurance now.

Presenter: Ravi Muthusamy, Group General Counsel, Legal, Claims and Insurance, X-Press Feeders

Presenter:

16.10-16.30

Presentation: Keeping the Lights On?

Presentation: Pure Gold – Data Mining

Some ship owners have been asking masters sailing through the Red Sea to turn off the onboard automatic identification systems to avoid Houthi attacks. However, this puts the owner and the vessel in breach of insurance policy requirements. This has led to a series of disputes between insurer and insured. We hear how insurers need to improve communication with their insureds so that everyone understands the new risks to which they are being exposed.

Insurers sit on a gold mine of data, not least because of the questions asked before quoting for a policy as well as the information that flows inwards as a result of a claim. However, the question for the sector is, what happens next? Are insurers using that information in the most useful way? Is it driving rates or even encouraging better risk management and behaviours from insureds?

Presenter: Oliver Goossens, Lawyer, Gard

Presenter: Tony Hildrew, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ceto

16.30-17.00

Fireside Chat: Old Versus New – How are New Staff Trained?

In the past, young insurance professionals learned their trade by sitting next to more experienced colleagues and simply watching them work. Working from home threw that model up in the air and today, that model hardly exists. But does that matter? In this session we speak to an older person as well as a new entrant to the market to hear their views and understand what really works for the next generation.

Participants:  Mark Stevens, Managing Director, Coastal Marine Asia Holdings

Alexandra Hirst, Claims Executive, Skuld

Closing Drinks Reception – Pre-Function Area