Written by Competitive insurance market for timber industry and recycling companies
The premiums in corporate property insurance are currently rising in all industries and loss-affected insurance contracts and types of establishments that are classified as critical, such as the timber industry and recycling companies, are especially hard hit by the consequences.
The triggers for market hardening were primarily the negative results of international corporate insurers and the lower number of providers as a result of company mergers. In addition to the premium increases, the different, more cautious risk and underwriting policy is also particularly evident among insurers with less capacity available for “risky” industrial risks (compared to the “normal” core business) on the market.
Few providers
A particular challenge at present is posed by the placement of insurance solutions for timber processing businesses and recycling companies: there are currently very few providers that accept requests for these industries. The majority of market players refuse to submit an offer from the start because claims experience does not suggest a positive business development. The remaining insurers now focus mainly on compliance with safety standards, preventative and precautionary fire protection, and the general attitude towards risk management in companies. They are checking in detail the extent to which their minimum requirements have been met and are also requesting additional detailed information on the current risk situation.
Risk mitigation measures
The insurability of their member companies has been a hot topic for the professional associations of the aforementioned industries for years, which is why the decision has been taken proactively to help improve the claims situation. The professional association of the Austrian timber industry and recently the association of Austrian waste disposal businesses, for example, has published its own guidelines for fire protection. These were produced in conjunction with fire protection experts and the insurance association. This means that specific recommendations for improving risk quality are provided, along with an overview of the fire protection measures requested by many insurers.
The extent to which existing fire protection equipment meets the recommendations of these guidelines can be checked using GrECo’s self-assessment tool. A corresponding report is generated after all relevant data has been entered, and clearly depicts the current risk situation. From the report, our risk engineers can then develop a tailored set of risk improvement measures.
GrECo Risk Engineering GmbH is pleased to offer advice here and is also available for individual analyses of the existing risk situation and to specify risk-improving measures.
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Rudolf Schiel
Practice Leader Property & Engineering
T +43 664 822 27 58