Change to financing of insurance program for Ukrainian maritime corridor to have no big impact — Atria Brokers

The change in the amount of funding for the ship insurance program in the new maritime corridor will not have a major impact, broker and head of analytical department with Atria Brokers Christina Serebryakova told Latifundist.

"Initially, it helped launch the new corridor and attract shipowners. It was a really good decision for Ukraine at the right time. Now, owners and sellers rely mostly on insurance companies with which they have long-standing relations," says Christina Serebryakova.

According to her, the absence of insurance cases is the only one factor that can make insurance cheaper. If another 100 ships pass through the corridor, this will be a signal to lower rates.

Any news about the reduction of logistics cost is positive itself, director of BPG Shipping Gennadiy Ivanov said. He added that there was still no understanding of how this mechanism would work.

First of all, it is not clear to what extent this is a new mechanism and in what order it will work. In the summer of this year, after russia withdrew from the "grain deal", Ukraine created a special fund in the amount of 20 billion UAH. It provided for guarantees of compensation for shipowners in case of damage to ships outside the previous "grain corridor".

"This story ended in nothing then. Shipowners went to their insurance companies and bought insurance. Because of the complicated and unclear procedure, everything was left on paper. Perhaps the current news is a continuation of that fund, just in a reduced form (50 million USD instead of 500 million USD), and the procedure has somehow been modified," Ivanov suggested.

As a reminder, on November 15 it became known that Ukraine, together with the British government and insurers, developed a special mechanism for covering military risks in the Ukrainian maritime corridor.