Cargo insurance sits within a large global marine-insurance market, but its premiums measure insurance income rather than the value of goods shipped or the number of policies. The latest figures also show why cargo risk is best understood alongside major claims, trade exposure, vessel losses, and reported shipping incidents.
Key Cargo Insurance Statistics
The most useful headline figures span market scale, regional concentration, claims, trade, and shipping outcomes:
- USD 24.2 billion in global marine cargo premiums was reported for 2025 worldwide.
- Cargo insurance represented 57% of global marine-insurance premiums in 2025 worldwide.
- Global cargo premiums increased 6.9% from 2024 to 2025 in the global marine cargo market.
- Asia accounted for 36.4% of global cargo premiums in 2025.
- Europe accounted for 37.6% of global cargo premiums in 2025.
- Europe held 46.5% of global marine-insurance premium income in 2025.
- Asia/Pacific held 30.8% of global marine-insurance premium income in 2025.
- International trade transported across oceans was estimated at 90% in Allianz’s 2025 global review context.
- 27 vessels over 100GT were total losses worldwide in 2024.
- Cargo vessels accounted for 267 total losses over 2015–2024 worldwide among vessels over 100GT.
- Fire or explosion caused 109 total vessel losses over 2015–2024 worldwide among vessels over 100GT.
- 250 shipping fire incidents were reported in 2024, up 20% year over year, worldwide among vessels over 100GT.
- 3,310 shipping casualties or incidents were reported in 2024 worldwide among vessels over 100GT.
- Machinery damage or failure accounted for 1,860 shipping incidents in 2024 worldwide among vessels over 100GT.
- 543 major cargo claims totaled USD 677 million in the latest IUMI Major Claims Database dataset for 2024.
- The IUMI major-cargo-claims inclusion threshold was above USD 250,000 in the 2024 dataset reported in 2026.
- Approximately 456.5 million tonnes of finished and semi-finished steel exports were estimated for 2025 worldwide.
Contents
- Key Cargo Insurance Statistics
- Global Cargo Insurance Premium Scale and Market Share
- Cargo Insurance Data by Region
- Cargo Vessel Loss Trends
- Cargo Insurance Loss Causes and Fire Risk
- Shipping Incidents and Regional Exposure
- Cargo Claims, Trade Volumes, and Cost Pressures
Global Cargo Insurance Premium Scale and Market Share
IUMI reported USD 24.2 billion in global marine cargo insurance premiums for 2025. This is premium income for the cargo business line, not a measure of insured cargo value, policy count, claims paid, or loss ratio.
Cargo represented 57% of global marine-insurance premiums in 2025, making it the largest named business-line share in the supplied market breakdown. For comparison, ocean hull represented 24.7%, offshore energy 11.1%, and marine liability excluding International Group P&I business 7.3%.
| Global marine business line | 2025 share or premium | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Marine cargo | USD 24.2 billion; 57% | Cargo premium income |
| Ocean hull | 24.7% | Comparison marine premium share |
| Offshore energy | 11.1% | Comparison marine premium share |
| Marine liability excluding International Group P&I | 7.3% | Comparison marine premium share |
Global cargo premiums increased 6.9% from 2024 to 2025. IUMI cautioned that exchange-rate movements materially supported the headline increase, so the nominal change should not be treated as purely underlying demand growth.
The 2025 cargo figure differs from the USD 22.64 billion reported for 2024 in a later IUMI article. Both are retained as period-specific IUMI premium-income measures, and neither represents the value of cargo transported.
Source: IUMI, “Facts & Figures Press Release 2026”; IUMI, “Steel cargo claims: turning experience into better loss prevention”.
Cargo Insurance Data by Region
Regional figures show two different views of the market: total marine-insurance premium income and cargo-specific premium share. They should not be treated as interchangeable.
| Region | Share of global marine premium income, 2025 | Cargo-specific share, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | 46.5% | 37.6% |
| Asia/Pacific or Asia | 30.8% | 36.4% |
| Latin America | 10.0% | Not reported in supplied cargo-specific figures |
| North America | 7.2% | Not reported in supplied cargo-specific figures |
| Middle East | 3.5% | Not reported in supplied cargo-specific figures |
| Africa | 2.1% | Not reported in supplied cargo-specific figures |
Europe accounted for 37.6% of the global cargo insurance market in 2025, while Asia accounted for 36.4%. IUMI reported the Europe–Asia cargo premium-share gap as 3.3 percentage points in 2025, compared with 7.8 percentage points in 2024.
Europe’s broader marine-insurance share was 46.5%, and Asia/Pacific’s was 30.8%. The regional marine totals include business lines beyond cargo, which explains why they are not direct substitutes for cargo-specific shares.
Source: IUMI, “Facts & Figures Press Release 2026”.
Cargo Vessel Loss Trends and Insurance-Relevant Shipping Data
Allianz’s Safety and Shipping Review 2025 provides risk context rather than cargo-claims data. Its casualty tables cover reported incidents and total losses for vessels over 100GT; the 2024 figures were based on reported data available at 31 March 2025 and may change after late reporting or later confirmation of constructive total losses.
There were 27 total losses of vessels over 100GT worldwide in 2024, down from 35 in 2023. Across 2015–2024, the decade recorded 681 total vessel losses, compared with 105 in 2015 and 27 in 2024, a reported 75% decline over the decade.
Cargo-vessel losses fluctuated substantially by year:
| Year | Cargo-vessel total losses, worldwide vessels over 100GT |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 40 |
| 2016 | 35 |
| 2017 | 53 |
| 2018 | 25 |
| 2019 | 22 |
| 2020 | 27 |
| 2021 | 31 |
| 2022 | 11 |
| 2023 | 17 |
| 2024 | 6 |
Cargo vessels accounted for 267 total losses during 2015–2024, while only six cargo vessels were among the 27 total losses in 2024. Allianz also estimated that oceans carried 90% of international trade in its 2025 review context; this is a broad trade estimate, not insured-cargo penetration.
Source: Allianz Commercial, “Safety and Shipping Review 2025”.
Cargo Insurance Loss Causes and Fire Risk
The decade-long vessel-loss record identifies the main causes of total loss, but these are causes of vessel total loss rather than causes of cargo claims or cargo-insurance payouts.
| Reported cause of total vessel loss | Losses, 2015–2024 | 2024 detail |
|---|---|---|
| Foundering | 346 | 12 of 27 losses |
| Grounding or stranding | 110 | Not separately supplied |
| Fire or explosion | 109 | 7 of 27 losses |
| Machinery damage or failure | 48 | Not separately supplied |
| Vessel collision | 29 | Not separately supplied |
Foundering caused 346 of 681 total vessel losses over 2015–2024. Fire or explosion caused 109, while grounding or stranding caused 110, machinery damage or failure caused 48, and vessel collision caused 29.
Fire remains an important insurance-relevant exposure even though the incident series is not a cargo-claims series. Allianz reported 250 shipping fire incidents in 2024, up 20% year over year, and at least seven 2024 total losses involved extreme weather as a reported factor.
Fishing vessels represented 10 of the 27 total losses in 2024, while cargo vessels represented six. The average age of a vessel involved in a total loss during 2015–2024 was 29 years, describing lost vessels rather than the age of the insured cargo fleet.
Source: Allianz Commercial, “Safety and Shipping Review 2025”.
Shipping Incidents and Regional Cargo Exposure Trends
Reported shipping casualties or incidents totaled 3,310 in 2024 worldwide among vessels over 100GT, up from 2,963 in 2023. These are vessel incidents, not cargo claims, and regional counts do not measure the amount or probability of cargo-insurance recovery.
Machinery damage or failure accounted for 1,860 incidents in 2024, while vessel collisions accounted for 251. The top 10 incident regions represented more than 80% of worldwide shipping incidents in 2024.
The largest named regional counts were:
- The British Isles, North Sea, English Channel, and Bay of Biscay recorded 799 incidents in 2024 and 5,613 during 2015–2024.
- The East Mediterranean and Black Sea recorded 694 incidents in 2024 and 5,306 during 2015–2024.
- South China, Indochina, Indonesia, and the Philippines recorded 285 incidents in 2024 and 2,574 during 2015–2024.
These patterns help describe where shipping exposure and operational events are concentrated, but they cannot be converted into cargo claim frequency without insured shipment, policy, and claims data.
Source: Allianz Commercial, “Safety and Shipping Review 2025”.
Cargo Claims, Trade Volumes, and Cost Pressures
IUMI’s Major Claims Database recorded 543 major cargo claims in its latest reported dataset, covering 2024 and reported in 2026. Those claims totaled USD 677 million, but the database is not a census of all insured cargo losses.
| Measure | Reported value | Definition or limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Major cargo claims | 543 | Selected IUMI database claims |
| Aggregate claim value | USD 677 million | Total for included claims |
| Inclusion threshold | Above USD 250,000 | Not an average claim size |
| Finished and semi-finished steel exports | Approximately 456.5 million tonnes | 2025 global estimate; not insured volume |
The database includes claims exceeding USD 250,000. Accordingly, the USD 677 million aggregate describes claims above the database cutoff rather than all cargo claims, and it should not be interpreted as a market-wide claims total or a loss ratio.
Steel illustrates how commodity movement can shape cargo exposure. Finished and semi-finished steel exports reached approximately 456.5 million tonnes in 2025, according to the World Steel Association figure quoted by IUMI; this is a trade-volume estimate, not a measure of insured tonnes, premium penetration, or claim severity.
Cargo insurance statistics therefore work best as a set of connected measures: premium income describes market scale, regional shares describe where marine and cargo business is written, claims data describes selected large losses, trade volume describes potential exposure, and vessel incidents describe the operating environment. Their definitions and populations differ, so none should be presented as a standalone measure of the probability or cost of recovery for an individual shipment.
Source: IUMI, “Steel cargo claims: turning experience into better loss prevention”; Allianz Commercial, “Safety and Shipping Review 2025”.