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NORD YOUNG


What Underwriters Actually Look For: Loss Control for Small Gulf Fleets
Most operators treat renewal as a price negotiation. The broker goes to market, quotes come back, and the conversation is about which number is lowest and whether last year's terms can be held. That framing misses where the leverage sits. By the time quotes are being compared, the underwriter has already formed a view of the risk, and that view was built from the loss runs, the survey report, and a set of judgments about how the operation is run. For a small fleet, those judg
Richard Young
Aug 78 min read


Subchapter M: What Towing Operators Need to Know
Ten years after it took effect, Subchapter M is no longer a new regulation. It is the operating framework for the entire U.S. towing industry, and the phase-in that occupied everyone's attention between 2016 and 2022 is long finished. What has replaced it is a renewal cycle, and that cycle is producing a specific set of problems right now for operators who obtained their first Certificate of Inspection early. Requirements that were deferred for five years are coming due, and
Richard Young
Aug 68 min read


The Shadow Fleet: What It Is, How It Works, and How Legitimate Operators Get Caught in It
There is a version of the shadow fleet story that treats it as somebody else's problem. Sanctioned states move sanctioned oil on ships nobody reputable would touch, Western regulators chase them with designations, and operators running clean tonnage on legitimate trades watch from a safe distance. That version is wrong in a specific and expensive way. The shadow fleet now represents a large enough share of global tanker capacity that legitimate operators share water, anchorag
Richard Young
Aug 48 min read


Encircled: The Houthi Maritime Blockade of Saudi Arabia and Trapped Crews With No Way Out
For five months, the working assumption across the industry has been that the Strait of Hormuz crisis, however severe, was a single-chokepoint problem with a single-chokepoint solution. Cargo could move west. Saudi crude could reach the Red Sea overland and load at Yanbu. The Cape route was expensive and slow but it existed. Every contingency plan drafted since February rested on the premise that one door was closed and another remained open. As of last Monday, that premise n
Richard Young
Jul 276 min read


What the Allianz Safety and Shipping Review 2026 Says and What Operators Should Do About It
Every year, Allianz Commercial publishes its Safety and Shipping Review, a data-driven analysis of global shipping loss trends, incident causes, and emerging risk themes drawn from claim data, industry reporting, and their own underwriting experience. This year's edition landed at a moment when the industry is navigating a degree of geopolitical disruption not seen in decades, and the report reflects that context directly. What it also reflects, however, is a more complex and
Richard Young
Jul 148 min read


The Underwriting Cycle: Why Your Insurance Premiums Move and How to Use That to Your Advantage
If you have been buying insurance for any length of time, whether for a vessel, a cargo program, or a commercial operation, you've noticed that premiums do not move in a straight line. Some years the market feels competitive, underwriters are flexible, and capacity seems abundant. Other years the same coverage costs significantly more, terms tighten, and underwriters who were previously eager for your business become selective or absent entirely. This is not arbitrary. It is
Richard Young
Jul 107 min read


Marine and Commercial Insurance Policies Explained
Insurance Policies Breakdown Insurance is one of those things most people think about only when something goes wrong. By then, the question is no longer what coverage costs, it's whether you have the right kind. This is a straightforward breakdown of what Nord Young offers across both marine and commercial lines, what each coverage type actually does, and why it matters to the businesses we work with. We work with clients on both sides of the industry divide. Whether you're
Richard Young
Mar 2613 min read
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