The threatened strike,
however, was only the most recent issue in a series of upheavals for shippers
in 2024, which saw multiple crises impact shipping routes – including
missle attacks
in the Red Sea and droughts impacting
the Panama Canal’s ability to host large ships. Many experts are predicting widespread
disruptions will continue in 2025.
Steve Raptis, an insurance lawyer at law firm Reed Smith,
told SeafoodSource that though importers are likely feeling relieved about the
averted strike, this is the time for them to plan for the next upheaval. "Insurance policies are awful to read
... but [shippers] really need to look at their insurance policies and figure
out what they're covered for and what they're not because there are so many
misconceptions," he said.
“Lots of people buy property policies, and they see that
it has business interruption coverage. They mistakenly assume that an event
like a strike, which interrupts their business, will be covered. The cause of
the interruption has to be physical loss or damage, which is what the policy
itself covers. So, unless the [striking] port workers set everything on fire or
torpedo the ships, there’s not physical loss or damage to cover.”
Darin Miller, the
national marine manager at insurance claims adjuster Sedgwick agreed, saying
that he has seen many denied claims over cargo delays because most are not
caused by the shipper involved but, rather, by outside forces like the strike
activity, terrorism, and weather events that caused delays last year. “Most of the time delays are denied coverage; they’re not a coverable
loss,” Miller said.
Raptis said this requires shipping firms to put in a bit
more legwork.
"The good news is
that there is coverage out there that will cover strikes, but you have to go
out specifically and buy it," he said. "It’s a specialized product that’s called a few different things, and
it goes by different names because it’s marketed by different insurers. At the
end of the day, what it really is is supply chain insurance. That’s what you
buy when you want to get coverage for your loss of net profits because a strike
means that you can’t load and unload your ships.”