Shipper's dream, insurer's nightmare?

Martyn Haines and Tom Gorrard-Smith, of Clyde & Co, ask how the market will cope with ever-larger vessels

With bunker prices remaining prohibitively high and, accompanied with shippers eager to minimise the carbon footprint of their supply chain movements, shipowners are increasingly looking to purchase vessels with greater cargo capacities and engine efficiencies to reduce the cost per tonnage of goods carried. Whilst in an overcrowded market economic forces will inevitably dictate that those operators able to offer more competitive freight rates will be the preferred choice for shippers (although service and reliability must not be overlooked), such ocean behemoths carry with them equally considerable risks for hull and machinery (H&M), cargo and protection & indemnity (P&I) insurers.