These reports are based on the blasts that have rocked the Chinese port city and surrounding area.
The two sets of explosions that devastated Tianjin, the Chinese port city, and that killed over 100 people, so far, are now making insurance news again as initial estimates are being released that indicated that covered losses will be anywhere from $1 to $1.5 billion.
This initial estimate was released by Credit Suisse, based on early media reports from China.
Tianjin is no small port. It is the third largest port on the planet, in terms of its total cargo volume. This insurance news began on August 12, when blasts rocked the massive industrial area, damaging a large segment and sending shockwaves over several miles. Now, insurance companies such as Allianz SE and Zurich Insurance Group have been reporting in that they have started to receive the first wave of insurance claims from policyholders who have been affected by this catastrophe. Until now, insurers hadn’t been making any guesses as to how large the insured losses may be.
This insurance news extends beyond companies from the west, as Chinese insurers will also be affected.
Analyst Arjan van Veen released a statement yesterday, that was based on estimates that were compiled from a number of different Chinese media reports. In it, the analyst explained that “It is still very early to determine the level of insured losses, but the event is likely to be large with initial insured loss estimates of $1-$1.5 billion and a large number of insurance companies affected.”
According to Credit Suisse, it will be the Chinese insurance companies that will be most heavily affected by the disaster, in addition to a number of international groups that provide either re-insurance coverage, or that cover affected multi-nationals.
As was reported yesterday by Live Insurance News, there have already been confirmations of 4,950 damaged vehicles from global automakers. The majority of those vehicles were insured, but it is not yet known exactly how much coverage was in place for this circumstance and for those products. Volkswagen AG did state that there was damage to 2,700 of its imported vehicles, to the point that the majority were “unsellable”.
