Middle East war risk premium increases by 5-10 times, with new coverage added for Chinese enterprises

Caixin: Hong Kong established the “Maritime War Risk Insurance Pool” in November 2025, aiming to provide more comprehensive war risk coverage for the Asian shipping industry. A spokesperson for the Maritime War Risk Insurance Pool recently told Caixin that after the recent Middle East conflict, they added coverage for some large Chinese state-owned and private enterprises within the “JWLA-033” war zone, including state-owned shipping and energy companies.

The person also pointed out that overall, ships sailing within the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman have seen war insurance premium increases of 5 to 10 times following the outbreak of the recent Middle East conflict.

The “JWLA-033” war zone refers to the notice JWLA-033 issued by the Joint War Committee (JWC) of the London insurance market on March 3, 2026, which expanded the war zone to include all waters of Bahrain, Djibouti, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman. Subsequently, the International Group of P&I Clubs announced that the existing war risk coverage would expire at midnight on March 5, and ships entering the war zone must add special war coverage; the China Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association also issued a notice on March 4 that the exclusion zone for ship war insurance would be changed, stating that the new ship war insurance policy would automatically resume at midnight (GMT) on March 8, and the new contract would apply JWLA-033. (See Caixin for “Exclusive | Middle East Marine War Risk Premiums Finalized, Oil Tanker Daily Rent Near $800,000, Jumping 4 Times in a Week”)