The International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) has released its 2025 analysis of the global marine insurance market - the IUMI "Stats Report". The report shows steady insurance markets for hull and cargo in 2024 but a "challenged" offshore energy sector. However, headwinds loom for all markets for the remainder of 2025 and beyond.
This annual document reports on the state of the marine insurance sector within the framework of the global economy, trade and shipping. Data is gathered from a number of agencies including IUMI’s own sources and is analysed and presented with some additional commentary.
Highlights from this year’s report includes:
Global marine insurance premiums in 2024 totalled $39.92bn, a 1.5% uplift from 2023. Stability was seen across all lines of business except for offshore energy where premiums reduced by almost 8%. Drivers included a continued rise in global trade volumes and values (cargo), changes in vessel numbers and values (hull) and oil price dynamics (offshore energy).
Ocean hull premiums were reported at $9.67bn, up by 3.5% on the previous year. Europe continues to dominate and reported an unbroken growth trend since 2019. Growth in the Russian hull market reached 42% largely due to sanctions preventing Russia from placing risks overseas. Loss ratios for Europe remained relatively stable.
Premiums for cargo insurance reached $22.64bn representing a 1.6% uptick on last year. Subdued growth was largely due to general economic and trade conditions. China performed particularly well, however. Loss ratios improved for the sixth consecutive year.
The offshore energy sector reversed its recent run of premium base growth to report a 7.9% reduction at $4.34bn for 2024. London continues to dominate this market with a 60% share. Notably, the Nordics was the only market to expand its share in 2024 (by 27%). A pressurised oil price, sanctions, decarbonisation initiatives and market capacity have all played a part in the performance of this business line.
The report also provided an update on IUMI’s Major Claims Database which contains data from 2013 onward with 30 national insurance associations now contributing to the hull and cargo analysis. More than 17,400 observations have now been recorded.
Additionally, and for the first time, the report introduces the newly revised IUMI Hull Inflation Index which helps insurers to explain marine repair cost inflation using a range of macroeconomic indicators.