LONDON (Reuters) -Britannia, the insurer of container ship the Dali, is working with the vessel’s owner and U.S. authorities on the investigation into the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, the insurer said on Thursday.
The bridge collapsed on Tuesday after the Dali suffered a power outage and struck a pylon, causing huge disruption in the port.
“We are working closely with the vessel’s owner and manager and the relevant U.S. authorities as part of the investigation into the casualty,” Britannia said in a statement.
The disaster is likely to result in industry-wide multi-billion-dollar insurance claims, which could make it the largest single marine insurance loss, Lloyd’s of London chairperson Bruce Carnegie-Brown told Reuters earlier on Thursday.
Ship liability insurance, which covers marine environmental damage and injury, is provided through protection and indemnity insurers such as Britannia, known as P&I Clubs.
Britannia declined to comment further.
The International Group of P&I Clubs collectively insures approximately 90% of the world’s ocean-going tonnage and member P&I clubs mutually reinsure each other by sharing claims above $10 million. The group holds reinsurance cover up to the value of $3.1 billion.
The P&I Clubs may be liable for issues such as the repair of the bridge and clearance of the wreckage, one industry source said.
Reinsurers – who insure the insurers – in the London market and major European players such Swiss Re and Hannover Re are likely to also face claims, industry sources say. Swiss Re and Hannover Re declined to comment.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul, Carolyn Cohn, Alexander Huebner and Paul Arnold; editing by Mark Heinrich and Chizu Nomiyama)
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