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BMT’s global network keeps busy as claims work pours in
30-Jun-2009
Business is brisk for technical firm despite shipping slump
Jerry Frank - Thursday 11 June 2009
A GLOBAL shortage of marine surveyors has become almost an industry given in recent years, and for those established in the field that means plenty of work.
BMT Marine & Offshore Surveys, one of the main providers of these specialist services, reports there is no let-up in demand for its surveyors, despite the global shipping slump.
Claims-related work for marine insurers is flooding in, and looks set to keep the international surveying and technical consultancy busy and scouting to add to its team of 60 worldwide surveyors.
The company, which in 2002 bought the London insurance market's historic marine casualty unit, the Salvage Association, has meanwhile built up its claims- handling capacity to cater for this volume of work.
Its London and New York-based case handlers are a part of the BMT's global support services team, which deal with case files upon receipt of reports from field surveyors around the world.
Steve Martin, the London-based manager of the global support services of the BMT, said: "We liaise with the insurance market and make sure that the work is distributed to the right people in London.
"In casualty work, nine times out of 10 the broker sees the underwriter and gives instructions to appoint, and the broker's instruction goes back to us."
Speedy and efficient case-handling is a vital aspect of BMT's business, thereby reducing claims costs for hull and cargo underwriters in the London market and for P&I club insurers.
One recent step taken by BMT was the move to engage fully last month in the London insurance market electronic claims filing system, holding out a faster service for insurance brokers and underwriters.
As well as providing field survey work in relation to hull and machinery claims resulting from a marine casualty, work is also typically linked to providing shiprepair specifications and tenders following a casualty or incident.
Working closely with the insurance market, the global support team takes survey instruction from London insurers and then finds one of its surveyors to attend a casualty.
Mr Martin and his team liaise with insurers, insurance brokers and shipowners, and "just about every facet of the freight market".
Marine underwriters have also become more technically demanding, so the support team needs to gain more information from the insurer.
"At one time you would get a simple instruction and then it would be incumbent to do whatever needed to be done in terms of a damage survey," said Mr Martin. "We tend to question underwriters a lot more about what they actually want."
The group can draw on its DeBeers operation in Rotterdam and Franco-Belgian BMT Techmar among the range of its parent's subsidiaries, as well as from the former Salvage Association and Murray Fenton.
"This worldwide network means there is a great deal of crossover activity," said Mr Martin. "When we were owned by the London insurance market we took probably around 95% of our work from them. Now we are open to more competition."
Excluding work from its DeBeer and Techmar subsidiaries, the group undertook around 2,800 surveys a year, a figure that has remained "fairly stable" in recent years.
"It is a 24-hour service, and in times of recession work does seem to pick up," said Mr Martin. "There is a lot of pre-risk work and project work around."
Lay-up surveys have yet to filter through to insurers and surveyors, although Mr Martin believes - along with many London underwriters - that a "time lag" is delaying this type of work.
"As the recession deepens we should be seeing more lay-up work," said Mr Martin. "We thought that it would happen quicker than it has. A lot of people are still just mooring their vessels and have gone into lay-up."
Surveyors drawing up reports for lay-ups would typically have to assess the safety of the shelter - as far flung as Greece and the Far East - as well as that of vessels.
"But in terms of physical lay-up surveys, there has not been a great deal of work," said Mr Martin.
"The mainstay of activities is still damage and, with freight rates low, there is probably going to be more damage work. Marine insurance broking houses are now busy with claims."
Although the work is there, BMT is acutely aware that the age profile of its small pool of highly experienced surveyors is rising.
Typically drawn from Britain's once-thriving shipyards and merchant marine sector, the generation from the sunset decades of the UK's postwar maritime base is approaching retirement.
"There was a time when surveyors were dominated by Scots or Geordies from the shipbuilding industry or former British mariners, but these are disappearing, with the state of the UK markets," said Mr Martin, who started his career with the then Salvage Association around 36 years ago.
"We are probably about half-and-half now in terms of UK and non-UK surveyors, and we are looking beyond Europe."
Recently, BMT and similar companies have worked hard to bring the average age of its surveyors to the lower 50s age bracket from nearer the 60-year-old mark.
But Mr Martin identifies one of the biggest challenges facing the industry and its search for quality surveyors as being the breadth and depth of qualifications and experience needed to carry out this kind of work.
"There are some skilled people around and we have been lucky to recruit recently," said Mr Martin. "But they are unlikely to have the qualifications we are looking for until they are in their mid-30s."
BMT has stuck with employing its own technical staff rather than employing consultants on a regional basis.
"Once we instruct the surveyor, there is a requirement to send a form of advice back within two days," Mr Martin said.
"It will contain general information about the casualty and, most importantly, an estimate on the cost of repairs. That allows insurers to set the reserve against the policy."
A field surveyor will then then typically have to make an update every fortnight, and will be involved in several jobs or more at any one time.
The group, which has built on the former Salvage Association's network and BMT Murray Fenton, has a presence in Africa, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
"Looking at the future, there could be more work in geographic areas such as west Africa, where the offshore industry is particularly strong," said Mr Martin. "A lot of activity is centred on Singapore, the Far East, China and the Middle East."
As well as carrying out casualty work for hull and machinery, P&I, liability and cargo insurers, the company also offers risk management services for vessels, shipyards, ports and wrecks.
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