Piracy comeback puts fresh pressure on marine war risk and K&R cover

For marine underwriters, the mechanism that turns this into a pricing question is the Joint War Committee’s List of Areas of Perceived Enhanced Risk. The committee, drawn from Lloyd’s and IUA war risk underwriters, widened its listed zones in March to bring in Bahrain, Djibouti, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar and extended coverage along the Somali and Pakistani coastlines — a move driven by the Iran conflict rather than piracy specifically. Any vessel entering a listed area triggers an additional premium and a notification obligation to underwriters. The list was reviewed again in July, and another revision isn’t out of the question if attacks keep climbing.