What Do IUMI's 2026 Numbers Say About Ro-Ro?

IUMI's 2026 figures, released at its Rotterdam conference on 22 September, say the hull market is paying more for fire than its premium growth suggests. Ocean hull premium rose 9.4% to USD 10.5bn, largely on exchange rates. 2026 is the fourth straight year with hull claims above USD 50m, driven mainly by fires. And car carrier and ro-ro values fell furthest, by 10.2% on average.

For a ro-ro or PCTC owner, those three numbers belong together. Premium is not buying the market a cushion, the large claims are fires, and the insured value of the ship type most exposed to cargo-deck fire is falling. That combination is what the next renewal conversation will be built on.

What IUMI published in September

The headline growth is mostly currency, not rate. IUMI's Facts & Figures release puts global marine premium for 2025 at USD 42.6bn, up 5.5%, with ocean hull at USD 10.5bn, up 9.4%. IUMI's chief analyst, Veith Huesmann, said the reporting figures are 'heavily supported by exchange rate effects.' Hull loss ratios sit around 60% in Europe on an incurred basis and around 50% in Asia and the US.

"Headline premium growth should not be mistaken for stronger rates or improved underwriting profitability."

— Ilias P. Tsakiris, Chair, IUMI Ocean Hull Committee, September 2026

Why fire is driving the claims bill

Fire is the loss type that turns an ordinary year into an expensive one. In IUMI's September newsletter, Astrid Seltmann of Cefor, the Nordic marine insurers' association, attributes the rise in hull claim cost since 2023 to the return of costly major losses, 'primarily fires', together with above-average repair-cost inflation. Cefor's mid-2025 figures make the concentration plain: 16 of the 26 claims above USD 20m since 2015 were fires, and 11 of those 16 were on vessels older than 20 years.

That is the pattern underwriters price against. Most hull claims are machinery damage, frequent and moderate. Fires are rare, but they set the size of the year.

Car carriers took the steepest value cut

Car carrier and ro-ro tonnage recorded the largest average value decrease in Cefor's renewal data, at −10.2%. A lower agreed value does not make a fire smaller. It does make the same fire a larger fraction of what the ship is insured for, which brings a constructive total loss closer for a given amount of deck damage. Höegh Xiamen, a cargo-deck fire alongside in Jacksonville in 2023, ended as a constructive total loss. On falling values, the margin between a repairable deck fire and a write-off narrows.

The engine room is part of the story

Not every ro-ro fire starts on the cargo deck, and IUMI's figures say so. Cefor's May 2026 analysis found engine-related fire frequency rose sharply from 2019 to 2021 and then held at the higher level. Passenger and container, car and ro-ro vessels see these fires two to three times as often as bulk carriers and tankers. Vessels older than 15 years show both higher frequency and higher cost, and 70% of Cefor's portfolio is now over 10 years old.

What the aggregate numbers don't separate

IUMI's public release does not split cargo-deck fires from machinery-space fires, or EV fires from conventional ones. IUMI's own position since 2023 is that battery EV fires are not more frequent than fires in conventional vehicles, though they are harder to fight. Its 2017 paper on ro-ro passenger ferries put the fire rate at more than 1% of vessels a year, about twice most other ship types, with cargo fires the most common kind. The trend line is clear, but the attribution inside it is not.

That gap is an opening for owners. An underwriter reading portfolio averages cannot see what a specific fleet does on its cargo decks. Evidence that a fleet detects cargo-deck heat and battery off-gas early, with logged alarms and response records, is information the market's own statistics cannot supply.

What owners should take into the next renewal

• Present machinery-space and cargo-deck fire controls as two separate risk stories, each with its own evidence.
• Expect questions on vessels over 15 years old: engine-room fire frequency and cost both rise with age in the Cefor data.
• Treat a falling agreed value as a reason to shorten time-to-response on the cargo deck, because the CTL margin is narrower.
• Bring logged detection and alarm-response data, not a description of equipment. Records are what an underwriter can credit.

Sources

• 1. IUMI — Facts & Figures Press Release 2026 (22 September 2026): global marine premium USD 42.6bn (+5.5%); ocean hull USD 10.5bn (+9.4%); hull loss ratios ~60% Europe, ~50% Asia and US; Veith Huesmann quote on exchange-rate effects.
• 2. IUMI — Global Marine Insurance Report 2026, presented at the IUMI Annual Conference, Rotterdam, 20–23 September 2026.
• 3. IUMI Ocean Hull Committee — 2026 hull market report, as reported by Cyprus Shipping News (25 September 2026): Ilias P. Tsakiris quotes.
• 4. IUMI Newsletter, September 2026 — Astrid Seltmann (Cefor), 'Elevated cost of hull claims' (9 September 2026): fourth consecutive year with hull claims above USD 50m; cost rise from major losses, primarily fires, and repair inflation; car carrier/ro-ro values −10.2% on average; engine-related fires 2–3× more frequent on passenger and container/car/ro-ro vessels; vessels over 10 years 70% of portfolio.
• 5. Cefor — Nordic Marine Insurance Statistics, mid-year 2025 hull report, as summarised by IIMS: 16 of 26 claims above USD 20m since 2015 were fires; 11 of those 16 on vessels older than 20 years.
• 6. IUMI — position paper on electric vehicle fires on ro-ro vessels (September 2023), Lars Lange: BEV fires not more dangerous or more frequent than conventional-vehicle fires.
• 7. IUMI — 'Fires on RoRo passenger ferries' position paper (8 February 2017): more than 1% of car/ro-ro passenger vessels experience a fire every year, about twice most other vessel types.