Ocean Marine Insurance

Ocean marine insurance is essential for businesses that deal with transport of products and goods across large areas of water. Naturally, other types of businesses like those operating mostly on land or in the air have no reason to acquire ocean marine insurance. The importance of this type of insurance lies in the fact that damages to businesses involving cargo ships usually lead to losses that are in the range of millions. The best method of protection against these losses is insurance.

Ocean marine insurance covers the ships, the cargo, and liability from negligence. The entire ship isn’t always covered, but the hull is. The hull includes the main body of the ship like the bottom, sides, and the deck. Aspects of ships that aren’t included in the hell are the masts, the engine, and other fittings.

While the hull is covered by ocean marine insurance, it’s mostly insured in cases of sinking, fire, piracy, or collision with another object or ship. If the hull is damaged for another reason then the insurance policy probably won’t cover it.

In order for a person to benefit from insurance in the event of damage, two rules must be fulfilled. The first is that the damage can’t be caused by regular and expected wear and tear or war. So don’t expect insurance companies to cover maintenance costs for your ships. The second rule is that as the owner, you can’t have prior knowledge of the incident or damages happening.

An owner knowing that there would be damages beforehand and not doing anything to stop them, can’t ask for insurance to cover his or her ships.

So who should seek ocean marine insurance? Those who work in the export and import of goods via shipping should definitely sign up for ocean marine insurance. Additionally, those who provide marine transportation and other forms of marine services or contracting should seek ocean marine insurance.

The benefits of ocean marine insurance aren’t limited to business owners. Those who own yachts should acquire insurance as well. This applies for private yachts not intended for business use too.

What’s so great about ocean marine insurance is that it covers lots of different situations. If a ship sinks, is pirated, or even gets damaged at the dock then it’ll be covered by most ocean marine insurance policies. Insurance should also cover loss of cargo and loss of revenue. So if your ship is involved in a collision that results in a loss of cargo, the value of the lost cargo will be covered by the insurance company.

Let’s be clear though that ocean marine insurance doesn’t cover passenger ships. It covers ships used for business and the transport of goods, but not those for passengers.

It’s not a common event that a ship sinks, but ships do crash and get damaged during their trips. It’s also fairly common for cargo to be damaged or lost during transport. These reasons are why ocean marine insurance is so popular and necessary among marine businesses.