In its latest newsletter, Japan P&I Club executive director Nakaji Ohsumi detailed the Club’s position at the beginning of the 2017 year. He said that there was “a growing belief that in the near future the US and European economies will recover and that the Chinese economy will pick up too” He noted that the shipping industry remained “in difficulty, with the freight market appearing to hit bottom at the end of 2016, but favourable signs reflecting economic recovery are presenting themselves”.
He said that, in these circumstances, Japan P&I Club had decided not to impose a general increase on P&I premiums for either ocean-going or coastal vessels for the 2017/18 policy year. Reinsurance costs had continued to fall, and the loss record was good last year in both sectors.
Japan P&I Club began the 2017 policy year with 88.2m tons of ocean-going vessels (down from 89.6m tons in 2016) and 2.5m tons of coastal vessels (down from 2.6m tons in 2016). There are 2,316 ocean-going vessels and 2,042 coastal vessels entered. The age of entered tonnage was 25.3% 0-4 years; 41.9% 5-9 years; 22.3% 10-14 years; 5.5% 15-19 years; and 5.0% 20 years-plus.
Mr Ohsumi said that “As regards ocean-going vessels, we regret to report that a large number of cancellations due to the selling and scrapping of vessels during the 2016 policy year has reduced the entered tonnage at this renewal for the second year in succession.” He said that the 2017 financial year was the final year of the club’s medium-term operational plan “JPI’s CHANGE Phase II” and that the Club was “working hard to achieve increases in entered tonnage, mainly from leading shipowners in Asian countries.”
The newsletter also contains a summary of new appointments, previously covered in IMN. https://www.piclub.or.jp/joy42qb0a-379/?action=common_download_main&upload_id=10630