UK P&I Club: Charterers face growing legal and financial liabilities-Logistics

The greater value of goods carried in ever-larger ships, higher commodity prices, combined with a harsher regulatory environment plus a significant increase in settlement claims has increased legal and financial liabilities for ship charterers, according to the insurance group, the UK P&I Club.

The group said US$65 million of its total gross premium income of $358 million for the financial year ended February 20, came from its fixed premium business, and that two-thirds of this business was generated by time charterers in the shipping industry.

A statement from the club said the income from its insurance business grew as charterers' legal liabilities across a wide spectrum of marine incidents increased.

These growing liabilities concern slot, space, voyage and time charterers, traditional charterers with a ship operating background, trading companies moving raw materials or finished products and traders moving goods on a scale which requires chartering.

As a result, P&I clubs have been receiving a growing number of enquiries about charterers' liabilities and more requests for protection and indemnity cover to meet possible exposure. Increasingly, charterers are looking for cover tailored to their particular situations, which integrates hull and other covers, provides liability protection for non-operational charters and offers pollution liability without sub-limit.

These factors have prompted the UK Club to extend its cover to meet these requirements and to publish an eight-page guide on Charterers' Liability Cover, available in newsletter or online format on www.ukpandi.com.

Third party liabilities are examined in terms of standard and extended cargo cover, pollution, personnel and fines. Charter parties may have to indemnify owners in respect of unsafe port conditions or berths, crew and stevedore injury, dangerous goods, stowage incidents, bunker quality and pollution. Hull damage may also involve stevedores, port or berth, stowage, hazardous cargo and bunker quality.