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 following the recent Middle East conflict, they have 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 individual noted that overall, ships sailing within the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman have seen war insurance premium increases of 5 to 10 times after the recent outbreak of conflict in the Middle East.

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 entire waters of Bahrain, Djibouti, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman into the war zone. 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 regarding changes to the excluded areas of ship war insurance, 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 Maritime War Risk Premiums Finalized, Oil Tanker Daily Rent Near $800,000, Jumping 4 Times in a Week”)