The protection and indemnity club that rang up the biggest surplus across the International Group is heading for another year with a good profit expected.
The performance appears to be largely down to the underwriting result as there has only been a modest investment return.
Although there is still the three months of the northern hemisphere winter to get through claims are significantly higher than the previous year but that was a particularly good year.
The club reports that a small number of higher value claims – particularly those between the abatement level of $1.8m and the start of pooling at $9m – have had an impact.
Steamship Mutual also accounts for three of the nine pool claims so far notified by the International Group clubs.
These relate to the geriatric Jones Act 5,330 lane metres ro-ro El Faro (built 1975) that sank with the loss of 33 lives and two much less significant incidents that are at this stage precautionary.
These involve the 106,000-dwt tanker Pacific Bridge (built 2002) that damaged a tidal station at Shanghai and the 4,200-hp tug Peter F Gellatly (built 2008) that struck a New Jersey terminal causing some pollution.
Steamship Mutual chaired by Armand Pohan of the New York Waterway ferry company reports it has added 2.9m gross tons to its insured fleet over the first eight months of the current P&I year to lift the total owned and chartered entry to 127m gt.
