Hong Kong based marine insurers are finding increased opportunities to provide war risk cover at lower costs to shipowners from Hong Kong and Greater China.
The war in the Middle East has highlighted the city’s ability to provide war-risk cover at a lower cost to the London market, said a report in the South China Morning Post.
The Insurance Authority had backed local insurers to launch a special war-risk insurance pool in November 2025, which now covers 10 mainland Chinese ships sailing in the Gulf region. The pool is backed by five Hong Kong insurers, and offers up to $130m in compensation for shipowners in Hong Kong and the mainland against war and emergency risks. The conflict in the Middle East has demonstrated that the marine specialty risk pool is necessary to provide insurance cover to shipowners, who would have to otherwise depend on the London market for cover.
According to government data, Hong Kong has the world’s fourth-largest ship register – after Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands – with 2,600 vessels totalling 130m gross tonnes and has 82 authorised shipping insurers.