Latest news from the marine insurance sector
The latest news from the global marine insurance industry. Updated each working day and without any access restrictions.
- Hormuz mine clearance is insufficient to restore normal shipping, says INTERTANKO September 3, 2026The announced mine clearance in the Strait of Hormuz will not be sufficient on its own to bring commercial shipping back to normal in the Persian and Arabian Gulfs, tanker group ....
- Cargo vessel in Marmara Sea sinks after collision with tanker, 10 missing September 3, 2026Turkey’s Directorate General of Maritime Affairs has reported a collision on September 2nd between the Türkiye-flagged general cargo vessel Tugberk Imamoglu (IMO 9003548) and ....
- Two Turkish companies suspend shipping to Russia September 3, 2026Two major Turkish shipping companies, Akkon Lines and Arka, are reported to have suspended their services to all Russian ports, citing the increased ....
- Ukraine hits Ust-Luga oil terminal on Baltic Sea September 3, 2026There are reports that Ukraine has launched one of its largest attacks of the war, targeting areas across Russia, including hitting the Ust-Luga oil terminal. Russia has retaliated with ....
- US officials claim that China’s COSCO is collecting data with concealed equipment September 3, 2026Two senior Trump administration officials have claimed that China’s state-owned shipping giant COSCO has been using concealed equipment on board its ships to spy on military ....
- Puntland alleges that ransom was paid in “rescue” of hijacked ship September 3, 2026The freeing of the cargo ship Lutuf (IMO 9109134) by Turkish naval forces (IMN September 1st) has become considerably more complex ....
- Unstable lift blamed by Mumbai police on crane lift accident September 3, 2026Police at the Port of Mumbai in India have said that an unstable lift was the reason behind an accident on the pier on Sunday evening August 30th. The police said that a cargo lift ....
- Growth in Persian Gulf pipelines ports September 3, 2026The six-month war between Iran and the US, and the concomitant effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, could have a systemic impact on Middle Eastern oil flows – and not necessarily ....
- History has not been a major focus for either of the Trump administrations, but this week the Trump administration sent several observers to their history books after it said that it was considering the reestablishment of “Prize Courts” a centuries-old maritime institution in which special-purpose tribunals would decide the legality of the seizure and forfeiture of an enemy merchant vessel. Due to changes in the nature of naval warfare, no prize cases have been heard in the US since 1956. In England and Wales, prize jurisdiction is exercised by the Admiralty Court under the Prize Courts Act 1894 and Senior Courts Act 1981. In France, the “Conseil des prises” has jurisdiction to determine the issue of the prize. Since 2007, piracy has been transferred to criminal courts. The council’s jurisdiction is reduced to war time. The concept therefore might have been seen as mainly academic, studied by undergraduates but then forgotten. Clearly, however, someone in Washington has remembered. The administration has seen it as a route by which it could bypass the delay-prone appeals process of the civil court system, according to a Bloomberg report. The peak age of Prize Courts was probably the 18th century, with contests between colonial powers, blockades, and militarily-aligned merchant shipping in the Atlantic. The court is convened in a belligerent state’s seaport when a captured merchant ship is brought in. If the ship meets the standard for a prize, the court transfers ownership of the vessel (and any contraband cargo) to the belligerent state. Unsurprisingly, international law did not provide carte blanche to belligerent states in this matter. There were six possible justifications: • carrying militarily-useful goods toward enemy territory (contraband goods); • transporting enemy military members; • operating under enemy control or charter; • using fake documents; • violating regulations near naval activity or • attempting to run a blockade. More than one of these conditions would have caught the eyes of Trump administration lawyers. The ship seizures by the US in late 2025 connected to its Venezuelan blockade and in the past few months since the Iranian blockade was set up appear to satisfy several of these conditions., Bloomberg has reported that the Department of Justice is looking to set up prize court proceedings in the Southern District of Texas (in Houston), which would be a convenient destination for seized tankers, and indeed is where some arrived after the Venezuelan blockade was imposed. US Attorney for the Southern District Aaron Reitz confirmed that his office is involved in the effort. The prize system limits the ability of third parties to intervene in the case. Civil forfeiture suits in the US are far more complex as other parties with potentially valid claims to the value of the vessel could make a case for their share of the prize. That can slow down drastically the eventual distribution of funds, which would also be depleted considerably by the extra legal fees, as well as costs for maintaining the captured vessel (insurance, wages, fuel, etc). September 3, 2026History has not been a major focus for either of the Trump administrations, but this week the Trump administration sent several observers to their history books after it said that it ....
- More than 80% of claims for crew fatalities relate to illness rather than accident, Britannia says September 3, 2026Britannia P&I has said that it had reviewed crew claims data from 2023 to 2025 in order to identify patterns and inform strategies for reducing ....