FP Marine's Bilney: 'Cargo rates are softest in my career'

Speaking to Post in Hong Kong Bilney, pictured, said that rates for marine cargo are going "down and down" and are "unprecedented and unsustainable". He added brokers weren't to blame and that there is "no logic" to the fall. He thought that perhaps "too much capacity" was the cause and some are seeing cargo as an apparent safe haven.

Mike Davies, director of underwriting management marine, Asia-Pacific, XL Catlin commented: "In my 35 years as a cargo underwriter, I have not seen such a soft market with continued downward pressure on global cargo rates. In 2012, Superstorm Sandy produced the largest marine loss in the history of insurance and yet we have not seen any hardening of global cargo rates. Instead there is a continued downward pressue on global cargo rates year on year."

Davies attributed this to several factors: a reduction in the number of cargo losses; stable overall net loss ratio; improved risk managment; and an increase in capacity and competition.

Davies added that more marine insurance premiums are being placed in the emerging Asian insurance markets rather than being repatriated to "the Western world". He expects this trend to continue with Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore developing more as global marine insurance hubs.