The overwhelming majority of the 230-plus ships at a standstill in the wake of the crash of ULCV Ever Given in the Suez Canal will not be able to reclaim potentially sizeable out-of-pocket expenses, said Standard Club on Thursday March 25th.
“The Standard Club’s Strike & Delay cover for onshore risks is designed to respond to this exact scenario. Members insure their ships for a declared daily indemnity against a range of perils including strikes, port closures, physical obstruction or unexpected border controls. When an incident occurs, the claim process is simple, swift and supportive – as you’d expect from a leading specialist mutual insurer.”
The Club said that a complete blockage of the Suez canal was the kind of realistic disaster that companies and governments planned for but fervently hoped would never happen.
“For the owners of those delayed ships, the payment of hire from charterers may well stop and for charterers, the ship they’ve paid to use is stuck and unable to fulfil its purpose. It is an undesirable situation for all parties.”
Standard said that lawyers would be analyzing who was responsible and, in most cases, how to recover the monetary losses that were accumulating for their clients. Insurers would be gearing up to handle the resulting claims.
“However, ship operators who purchased Marine Delay Insurance can mitigate their losses simply and effectively without worrying about legal liability and proving their case”, the Club said.