Geopolitical tensions continued to shape the marine insurance market in 2025 and 2026, according to the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI).
The “IUMI Stats Report for 2025”, released yesterday, says that war cover became increasingly prominent while vessel availability, particularly for energy carriers, tightened as conflict in the Middle East intensified. Oil and gas demand remained strong while the impact of global tariffs was less significant than initially anticipated.
The report reads, “Conflict in Iran has significantly disrupted shipping through areas designated as war-listed zones. Prior to the conflict, vessels spent an average of around 9% of their operating time in listed areas. This has subsequently fallen by approximately 25%, reflecting changes in routing and vessel deployment.
“As might be expected, energy-carrying vessels, including tankers and gas carriers, spend the greatest proportion of their operating time in war-listed areas and are therefore particularly exposed to changes in the war-risk environment.
“It is difficult to accurately quantify the proportion of global marine insurance premium attributable specifically to war risks. However, as a broad starting point, the 9% of vessel operating time previously spent in war-listed areas provides an indication of the potential scale of this exposure.”
Other highlights in the report include:
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The 2025 marine insurance year saw modest growth in the overall global premium base, although underlying market conditions remained soft. Currency movements, increased capacity and continued competitive pressures contributed to a challenging market environment. Global marine insurance premiums reached $42.6bn in 2025, up by 5.5% on 2024. In particular, the weakness of the US dollar had a significant impact on reported premium levels, masking any underlying market development while increased capacity and competition continued to drive soft market conditions.
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Marine cargo premiums were reported as $24.2bn, up by 6.9% year-on-year, supported by seaborne trade and asset and commodity price movements. Chinese premiums continued to grow strongly driven by high-value exports including AI-related technology. Despite improving loss ratios, the market remained soft.
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Ocean hull premiums increased 9.4% to $10.5bn encouraged by global fleet growth, higher vessel values and war premiums. Fleet growth continued to outpace premium growth indicating continued competitive pressure although loss ratios appear to have normalised.
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Offshore energy premiums were broadly unchanged at $4.82bn, up just 0.1% on 2024. London retained a 62.7% market share and around 30% of the renewables sector. While the market remains soft, energy security and geopolitical concerns could support significant future investment.
On a more positive note, the overall claims environment remained relatively stable, with no catastrophic loss having a significant impact on any individual sector. However, attritional losses continued to build, with the potential to erode profitability.
Concerns that tariffs would act as a brake on international trade did not materialise to the extent anticipated; and global GDP growth proved stronger than expected. Meanwhile, 2025 saw the first emerging impact of the global AI race on marine trade with high-value semiconductors increasingly being traded around the world.
IUMI represents 42 national and regional marine insurance and reinsurance associations.