Building resilience across oceans, ports and global trade

This year's IUMI Conference theme, "Anchoring Trust in a Contested World," captures the reality facing the Marine & Energy (re)insurance industry today.

For me, anchoring trust means providing stability and confidence when the environment around us is anything but stable. In a world increasingly shaped by geopolitical tension, changing trade relationships, conflict and rapid technological advancement, our clients need partners who understand how risks are evolving and who can support them through periods of disruption and change.

Over the past year, these forces have continued to reshape the global risk landscape. Yet amid this uncertainty, one thing has remained remarkably resilient: global trade. Ships continue to move; energy continues to flow and supply chains continue to adapt. 

Maritime transport remains the backbone of international commerce, carrying more than 80% of goods traded worldwide by volume. That scale brings into sharp focus both the resilience of global maritime trade and the importance of our industry in helping to protect it.

Behind that resilience lies trust between trading partners, insurers and clients, and across the global maritime ecosystem. Trust has always been fundamental to insurance. Our clients rely on us to provide certainty in uncertain times, to understand emerging risks before they materialise and to provide sustainable capacity through all phases of the market cycle. For Swiss Re, this means building resilience with clients across oceans, ports and global trade. As the world becomes increasingly contested, that responsibility becomes even more important.

For Marine & Energy underwriters, geopolitics has moved from the periphery of our discussions to the centre of many underwriting decisions.

The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East continue to demonstrate how quickly regional events can have global consequences. Disruptions to shipping routes, evolving sanctions regimes, attacks on commercial vessels and the increasing use of drones, cyber capabilities and hybrid warfare have fundamentally changed the nature of conflict and the way insurers assess risk. The scale of this shift is significant: by May 2026, tonnage through the Suez Canal remained around 70% below 2023 levels, as vessels continued to divert from the Red Sea and sail around the Cape of Good Hope. These longer journeys have implications well beyond transit times, affecting costs, supply chains, emissions and ultimately the risk landscape we insure. 

At the same time, competition between major economies continues to reshape global trade. Tariffs, export controls and the race for critical minerals, advanced technology and energy security are influencing investment decisions and supply chains across multiple industries.

For our industry, these developments reinforce the need to look beyond individual risks and consider the broader geopolitical environment in which our clients operate. Underwriting today increasingly requires an understanding of how political developments, trade policy and regional instability interact with marine and energy exposures. It also requires us to continually challenge our assumptions and ensure our underwriting keeps pace with an evolving risk landscape.

While headlines often focus on disruption, global trade has demonstrated remarkable resilience. 

This resilience is visible in the data: while maritime trade volumes grew by 2.2% in 2025, the distance travelled by that cargo grew much faster, with the rerouting pushing ton-miles up by almost 6%. This is a striking illustration of the way global supply chains are adapting to disruption rather than simply retreating from it. 

Businesses are diversifying manufacturing locations, developing alternative shipping routes and investing in greater operational flexibility to improve resilience. New logistics hubs continue to emerge while established trade corridors adapt to changing geopolitical realities. 

At the same time, the transition to lower-carbon shipping is reshaping the industry. The IMO's strategy targets net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping by or around 2050, alongside increased uptake of zero or near-zero GHG emission fuels and energy sources by 2030. 

These changes inevitably alter patterns of exposure. Cargo values, accumulation hotspots and trading routes are shifting, requiring insurers to continuously reassess how and where risk is concentrated.

The scale and interconnectedness of modern exposures continue to increase. Container vessels and cruise ships have grown significantly in size and value, while expanding offshore energy infrastructure, sophisticated logistics networks and concentrated port operations mean that a single event can have far-reaching consequences across multiple lines of business.

Although large vessel losses remain at historically low levels, the risk picture is not becoming simpler. The latest data shows that reported shipping incidents declined in 2025, continuing the long-term improvement in maritime safety. But larger, more valuable vessels and increasingly concentrated exposures mean that when losses do occur, the potential severity and accumulation can be significant.  

This places greater emphasis on exposure management, accumulation modelling and data quality than ever before. Historical experience remains an important guide, but it is no longer sufficient on its own. Emerging risks often develop faster than historical data can explain them.

Our industry must continue investing in better analytics, stronger governance and more forward-looking approaches that allow us to identify changing risk patterns before they become losses.

Technology is rapidly transforming the way insurers analyse and manage risk.

Artificial intelligence, improved analytics and enhanced exposure modelling offer significant opportunities to improve efficiency, identify emerging trends and support better underwriting decisions. At the same time, increasing digital dependence introduces new vulnerabilities, from cyber threats to systemic technology failures.

The opportunity is not simply to adopt new technology, but to use it responsibly. Data and AI can enhance decision-making, but they do not replace technical expertise, market knowledge or underwriting judgement. The strongest outcomes will continue to come from combining technological capability with experienced underwriting professionals.

Against this backdrop of accelerating change, the importance of trust cannot be overstated.

In my experience, clients value certainty above almost everything else. They need partners who understand their risks, who remain consistent through the cycle, who are prepared to have open and sometimes difficult conversations about risk, and who can combine technical expertise with a long-term commitment to supporting their business.

Sustainable underwriting, disciplined risk selection and transparency are what build confidence over time. They enable insurers to support clients not only when market conditions are favourable, but also when the unexpected happens.

That is why this year's IUMI Conference is particularly timely.

Hosted in Rotterdam—Europe's largest port and one of the world's most significant maritime hubs—the conference brings together insurers, brokers, clients and industry specialists to discuss many of the issues currently shaping our market. The dedicated workshops on War Challenges for Marine Insurance and Logistics and Trade will undoubtedly generate valuable discussion on two topics that have become central to our industry. 

Just as importantly, the conference provides an opportunity to exchange ideas, strengthen relationships and collectively consider how our market can continue evolving in an increasingly complex world.

Marine insurance has always played a vital role in enabling international trade to flourish through periods of uncertainty. Today's environment may be more contested than at any point in recent decades, but our purpose remains unchanged: to understand emerging risks, provide sustainable capacity and help our clients trade with confidence.

At Swiss Re, we remain committed to partnering with our clients through disciplined underwriting, technical expertise and a forward-looking perspective.

I look forward to joining colleagues, clients and market partners in Rotterdam for my first IUMI Conference as Global Head of Marine & Energy at Swiss Re. I hope to see many of you there as we discuss the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of our industry, and how together we can continue anchoring trust in a contested world.