Hard-pressed shipowners face a lottery when they ask their protection-and-indemnity (P&I) club for a return of premium for laid-up vessels.
There is little consistency and not much transparency about the clubs’ approach to laid-up returns, according to the Arthur J Gallagher insurance broking group.
The broker cites the case of a capesize bulker of about 180,000 dwt or 95,000 gt going into cold lay-up where one club was prepared to return almost 73% of the estimated total premium but another little more than 30%, with a number of mutuals in the middle at about 50%.
Gallagher
