Iran’s Marine Insurance Driven by Growth

EghtesadOnline: Data from the Central Insurance of Iran indicate that the country’s insurance industry has been boosting its profits and reducing its loss ratio for the past 10 years when it comes to covering ships and marine transportation.

News ID: ۷۸۱۹۵۱

03 March 2018

Insurers earned less than 100 billion rials ($2.23 million) from ship insurance premiums in the fiscal 2007-8, which share grew only slightly in the following year and came down slightly again in the fiscal 2009-10, data from CII’s website show.

This is while the loss ratio of insurers in this field decreased from 86% in the fiscal 2007-8 to 42% in the year after, only to surge to 141% and then fall to 117% in the following two years.

The fiscal 2010-11 provided the first notable jump in the volume of ship insurance premiums as they grew beyond 700 billion rials ($15.66 million) with the loss ratio fixed at 60%, but the next year saw premiums rise above 1 trillion rials ($22.38 million) for the first time in a year, which saw a loss ratio of 84%, according to Financial Tribune.

The fiscal 2013-14 was the biggest year for Iran’s ship insurance industry when the loss ratio was only 27% and the highest premiums in the industry’s history reached 2.02 trillion rials ($45.2 million).

Insurance premiums generated from covering ships were around 1.4 trillion rials ($31.32 million) in the fiscal 2014-15 and rose to 1.5 trillion rials ($33.56 million) in the year after, whereas loss ratios for those years were registered at 74% and 87% respectively.

In the previous fiscal year, around 1.3 trillion rials ($29.1 million) were generated in premiums, but the loss ratio also decreased significantly to 21%.

The total number of ship insurance policies was 1,233 a decade ago and the first notable jump happened in the fiscal 2010-11 when the number exceeded 7,000. The previous fiscal year saw the highest number of policies at 8,583, while a total of 332 loss-inducing incidents also took place.

In the fiscal 2011-12, Iran’s fleet had 136 ships that carried 1,868 passengers and close to 5.3 million tons of goods. The number of ships decreased to 134 and 124 in the subsequent two years.

But from the fiscal 2014-15 and after Iran’s nuclear deal was reached, the numbers started to rise again, and until the fiscal 2015-16 where the data end, a total of 130 ships were active and transported 1,843 people and 4.93 million tons of goods.