Denmark’s Hafnia Tankers could be one of the first to move in what is now expected to be an active protection and indemnity renewal season.
The tanker company announced a planned merger with the BW Group in December last year to create the world’s third largest product tanker owner.
It is widely expected to alignits fleet’s insurance coverage with the Singapore giant to benefit further from economies of scale.
Hafnia’s fleet of 40 owned product tankers, ranging in size from handysize to LR1, is modern and well run, making it an attractive business for leading P&I clubs.
Split coverage
Hafnia currently splits its coverage between Britannia P&I and Norway’s Skuld.
However, the size of the BW Group means it already gets beneficial terms from its providers North P&I Club, Gard and UK Club.
“Hafnia is bound to getter better terms if it joins the BW Group cover. A fleet of that size is going to be one of the biggest moves of the renewal,” one broker said.
However, others suggested Hafnia might yet use the potential tie up with the BW Group to try to leverage a better deal out of its existing P&I providers for the ships.
Hafnia technical executive vice president Ralph Juhl confirmed to TradeWinds the company is considering its P&I options in the light of the BW merger.
He said: "Merging two portfolios of this size in combination with the BW Group portfolio, obviously gives various opportunities for P&I placement that we have evaluated thoroughly.
"Price is always important, but the major considerations has always been the cooperation with the P&I clubs.
"Our combined ability to solve issues rapidly and effectively in cooperation when issues arises, are of utmost importance as a fast and professional initial approach to a situation, will save a lot of money and grief when settling the claims later on."
He added: "We have not decided to abandon any clubs at this time and we are still negotiating with the clubs in regards to the forthcoming P&I renewal. However, for strategic reasons we might reduce the collective numbers of P&I clubs as uniformity in operation is a key to familiarity and thus swift actions when required."
Following the announcement of the BW Group deal Hafnia Tankers chief executive Mikael Skov told TradeWinds the merged companies would be seeking to benefit from its larger size.
“There is substantial scale operationally, so the combined business will be able to focus on value accretive transactions going forward as opposed to the need of investing to obtain scale,” he said.
This article has been updated since first publication following comment from Hafnia.
