Global marine insurance premiums reached $42.6bn in 2025, up 5.5% on 2024, but the weakness of the US dollar masked any underlying market development while increased capacity and competition continued to drive soft market conditions, according to 2026 Stats Report released by IUMI -International Union of Marine Insurance.
“Changes in marine insurance premium income are generally driven by factors such as global trade volumes and commodity prices for cargo, vessel values for hull and oil prices and activity levels in the offshore energy sector,” IUMI stressed in its latest report.
The report shows that marine cargo premiums reached $24.2bn, up 6.9% year-on-year, supported by seaborne trade and asset and commodity price movements. Chinese premiums continued to grow strongly, driven by high-value exports including AI-related technology. Despite improving loss ratios, the market remained soft.
Ocean hull premiums increased by 9.4% to $10.5bn, encouraged by global fleet growth, higher vessel values and war premiums. IUMI reported that fleet growth continued to outpace premium growth indicating continued competitive pressure although loss ratios appear to have normalised.
Offshore energy premiums remained broadly unchanged at $4.82bn, increasing by just 0.1% compared with 2024. London retained a 62.7% market share of which around 30% is renewables. While the market remains soft, IUMI says energy security and geopolitical concerns could support significant future investment.
“Geopolitical uncertainty continues to affect all marine insurance business lines, while inflationary pressures, largely driven by oil prices, are adding to the challenges,” Jun Lin chair, IUMI facts & figures committee noted.
As in previous years, the report also provides an update on IUMI’s major claims database which contains data from 2013 onward with 30 national insurance associations now contributing. The number of observations for cargo claims has grown to 7,200 and a cumulative loss of $11.4bn.
Commenting on this year’s report, IUMI secretary general, Lars Lange said: “The 2025 marine insurance market recorded modest growth in global premiums, although underlying conditions remained soft. Increased capacity, competitive pressures and currency movements, particularly the weakness of the US dollar, all influenced reported premium levels.
“On the claims side, the overall picture remained relatively stable with no single catastrophic loss significantly affecting any individual sector. However, attritional claims continued to accumulate putting pressure on profitability.
“Concerns that global tariffs would significantly constrain international trade proved less pronounced than anticipated while global GDP growth was stronger than expected. At the same time, the global race for AI began to influence marine trade with high-value semiconductors becoming an increasingly important component of international cargo movements.
“Asia continued to lead market growth with premium income rising steadily since 2016 and China remaining the region’s dominant market. European markets also expanded, although at a slower pace.
“Looking ahead, geopolitical tensions continued to shape the market into 2026. War cover became increasingly prominent while vessel availability, particularly for energy carriers, tightened as conflict in the Middle East intensified. Strong oil and gas demand continued to support activity while the impact of global tariffs remained less significant than initially feared.
“At IUMI, our job is to keep abreast of these many issues and engage with the relevant agencies to ensure marine underwriters are aware and equipped to continue to provide the insurance and risk mitigation services that ensure global trade continues without interruption.”
