The Shipowners’ Club announced an underwriting profit in 2023 despite suffering a major casualty when a tanker sank in Philippines waters.
The club, which provides protection and indemnity insurance for small and specialised vessels, reported an underwriting surplus of $4.1m, down from $6.2m the previous year.
New members and tonnage boosted premium income to $248.9m from $236.4m in 2022, while claims incurred reached $173.8m, up from $167.3m.
The surplus came despite the club bucking the trend among P&I clubs to freeze its general increase in premiums over the year. Its combined ratio was 98.4%.
Chief executive Simon Peacock, who took over last year, said the results suggest that the club is in “very good health”.
“Our sure and steady growth in members, in vessels and in tonnage reflects the care we take to deliver the very best service,” he said.
A 30% increase in total claims to $141m in 2023 was attributed to the sinking of the 1,143-dwt Princess Empress (built 2022) off Naujan in Oriental Mindoro in the Philippines in February after it suffered engine problems during bad weather.
The tanker was hauling 800,000 litres of fuel oil. The sinking led to a serious spill and prompted more than 35,000 claims, mainly from local fishermen, amounting to more than $50m.
The club set up claims offices throughout Mindoro for those affected by the incident to register claims.
“The subsequent pollution contaminated an extensive area of shoreline and impacted multiple fishing communities,” said the club in its annual report.
“The ‘at sea’ response was successful and involved swift pollution mitigation measures and ultimately an intricate oil extraction operation.”
The club met the first layer of claims costs, with the International Group of P&I Clubs’ claims pool and the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds picking up the rest.
The results for the Luxembourg-registered club were buoyed by a bounceback in its investment performance.
A loss of $65.6m in 2022 was turned into a $65.7m gain. Capital reserves increased as a result from $337.4m to $406.8m.
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