Marine insurers welcome new ICS position on arming ships

The International Union of Marine Insurance has welcomed the announcement by the International Chamber of Shipping that it is now taking a more neutral position on the use of private armed security personnel on board ships to protect them from pirates. Earlier this week ICS chairman Spyros Polemis said: “ICS has had to acknowledge that the decision to engage armed guards, whether military or private, should be made by the ship operator after due consideration of all risks, and subject to approval of the vessel’s flag state and insurers.”

IUMI says this is in line with the position it announced in January, saying that it was up to individual insurers whether to provide cover for ships and operators if private armed guards were employed on board.

Ole Wikborg, the Oslo-based president of IUMI, said today: “We anticipate that more industry organizations will go down this route as the problem escalates. Frustrated by the weak resolve on the part of governments and international agencies to take effective action to stop the piracy juggernaut in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, the shipping industry is now reaching a point where it must take decisive  -  and, if necessary, deadly  -  action at sea to end this huge and dangerous business.

“At a time when the industry is struggling against weak freight markets and other adverse factors such as sanctions, it cannot afford to bleed more money from pirate activity, nor to see an increasing number of vessels and their cargoes captured. That goes for insurers too.

“Above all else, the fact that more than 700 seafarers are being held hostage, many for very long periods, and that attacks on ships are becoming more violent, must surely tip the scales in many cases where shipowners have to make painful decisions.”