War risk underwriters said they are unlikely to look at previous links to Israel when carrying out a risk assessment of ships entering the Red Sea.
The question was raised for many war risk underwriters following the most recent Houthi terror group attacks on shipping, which involved a vessel with past but no current commercial links to Israel.
The Orient Overseas International (OOCL)-chartered 4,253-teu container ship Number 9 (built 2007) was hit by a drone attack launched from Yemeni.
It is controlled by UK-based company Castle Harbour Capital.
However, it had previously been on hire to Israeli container ship operator Zim under a previous owner, more than two years ago.
There was also an explosion reported close to the Japanese-controlled 81,800-dwt bulker AOM Sophie II (built 2020).
The ship also had no clear connection with an Israeli-linked past or present. It had previously been on long-term charter to Augustea Oceanbulk Maritime.
However, underwriters said there is little point in looking at whether ships had a past commercial relationship with Israel when pricing cover.
They said there is always a risk that non-Israeli ships could get caught up in the conflict, while there have been cases in the past where the Houthi targeting of ships had been misinformed.
“It is impossible to try to double guess, which ships might become targeted,” one underwriter said. “If a Houthi terrorist believes a ship is connected with Israel, then that is good enough for them, and there is nothing anyone can do about it,” one underwriter said.
War risk rates for Red Sea transit inevitably crept up following the latest series of attacks.
War risk rates in the region had been hovering between 0.03% and 0.05% since Houthi first began its assault on commercial shipping by capturing the 5,100-ceu car carrier Galaxy Leader (built 2002).
Some brokers suggested there were some quotes in the war risk market as high as 0.1% immediately following the most recent attacks this weekend, but on average the market was expected to fall below that level.
