In Conversation: Allianz’s Rahul Khanna Shares a Marine Industry Update from RISKWORLD 2024

In a conversation held at RISKWORLD 2024 in San Diego, Captain Rahul Khanna, global head of marine risk consulting, Allianz Commercial, sat down with Risk & Insurance® to talk about current market trends impacting the marine industry.

The destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is the most notable current affair affecting marine. The March 26 tragedy saw the Dali, a container ship, crash into the bridge and cause its deadly collapse. Six road maintenance workers died. Maryland Governor Wes Moore called the event a “global crisis” that had affected more than 8,000 jobs, and the economic impact of the closure of the waterway has been estimated at $15 million per day.

Khanna noted that an event of this magnitude will have a lasting effect on marine and insurance. But, luckily, “from a business interruption perspective, the cargo has started to flow into and out of Baltimore,” Khanna said back in May during the conference, “which is good.”

Another hot button topic Khanna delved into was the Red Sea shipping crisis and its impact on the supply chain. As cargo and container ships are being targeted for attacks, many are avoiding the Suez Canal altogether, taking longer trips to bring goods to port. While it avoids the potential for losses, the supply chain is feeling the strain.

“That’s another big problem facing the global shipping industry and a knock-on effect on supply chains overall across the world,” Khanna said. “They are taking a few extra weeks to arrive. All the companies looking at just-in-time deliveries are really suffering now because the goods are not arriving in time … It also has an impact on cost. The cost of shipping goods per unit has also started to increase.”

Here’s our conversation with Khanna in full: