Self-managed
Gross Tonnage
| Owned | 90,200,000 |
| Chartered | 8,800,000 |
Standard & Poor’s Rating BBB
Free reserves
| 2023 | 205,470,000 |
| 2022 | 180,686,000 |
| 2021 | 243,666,000 |
| 2020 | 235,935,000 |
| 2019 | 237,876,000 |
Vessel tonnage by type
| Bulk carriers | 51% |
| Tankers | 31% |
| Car Carriers | 8% |
| Container ships | 16% |
| General cargo/other | 4% |
KPIs ($’000s)
| Year | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
| Calls/Premium | 246,372 | 166,551 | 178,080 | 183,078 | 194,384 |
| Reinsurance Cost | 59,931 | 43,531 | 44,157 | 46,174 | 42,351 |
| Net Claims (incurred) | 148,035 | 154,702 | 120,396 | 118,370 | 118,734 |
| Operating Expenses | 23,015 | 23,270 | 24,250 | 25,710 | 25,739 |
| Net Underwriting Result | 15,391 | (54,952) | (10,723) | (7,176) | 7,560 |
| Gross Outstanding Claims | 661,574 | 671,742 | 592,800 | 468,556 | 435,842 |
| Total Assets | 664,169 | 592,442 | 673,058 | 659,533 | 643,569 |
| Average Expense Ratio | 7.78% | 8.29% | 8.02% | 7.42% | 6.52% |
| Solvency Margin | 1.00 | 0.89 | 1.14 | 1.41 | 1.48 |
| Reserves/GT Ratio | $2.28 | $1.94 | $2.51 | $2.39 | $2.49 |
Following what Tysers described as “the awful 2021 year” (when free reserves fell dramatically), the Club recorded a surplus of $42m in 2022, restoring free reserves back over the $200m mark. However, this was due to unbudgeted additional calls totalling $51m for the 2020 and 2021 years.
The combined ratio improved from 134% to 84%, excluding currency movements in claims estimates, and improving the five-year average to 105%. Including currency movements, the combined ratio was down to 97% from 157%.
Net incurred claims were down from $155m to $148m and in both years the Club suffered two pool claims, although the 2022 ones were less serious than 2021. The Club did achieve an investment return of $5m, but saw owned tonnage drop 3m to just over 90m.
Tysers noted that new Chair Hitoshi Nagasawa had bemoaned the state of the Japanese economy, with soaring global resource prices and a weak yen resulting in 2022 having the largest trade deficit ever recorded and recovery lagging behind the rest of the world.
This was partly as a result of issues with Covid vaccination rollout and the emergence of new Covid variants.
In the shipping industry, uncertainty over the economic outlook and concerns about stagnant cargo movement remain.
Herein, said Tysers, lay the problem for the Club – its efforts to develop business outside Japan have not been successful and its lack of geographical and tonnage spread and reliance on domestic business are a severe disadvantage compared to other Clubs, which are operating worldwide and gain some stability by balancing downturns in some parts of the world against upturns elsewhere.
On the other hand, Tysers noted that the Club could rely on the loyalty of most of the membership to help it through difficult times such as those experienced over the past two years. This gave it an advantage over the other Clubs, who were struggling at the moment.