UNTERFÖHRING (dpa-AFX) - Following the bridge collapse in Baltimore, the Allianz insurance company is warning of the risks of ever larger container ships. Although the number of serious shipping accidents has decreased overall in recent decades, incidents involving large container ships and car carriers cause unusually high losses. This is according to the experts at industrial insurer Allianz Commercial in a new assessment of shipping risks.

On 26 March, the almost 300-metre-long container ship "Dali" caused the Francis Scott Key highway bridge in Baltimore to collapse, and US President Joe Biden plans to visit the site of the accident this Friday.

The financial damage can be extremely expensive when large ships are lost and have to be scrapped, according to the Allianz assessment: "The removal of a wreck can now easily cost several hundred million dollars, in some cases over 500 million." Since the end of the 1960s, the loading capacity of container ships has increased by 1500 percent - from just over 1500 standard containers (TEU) in 1968 to up to 24,000 at the beginning of this decade.

"If there is an incident with a large ship, the costs are very high," says Rahul Khanna, Head of Global Risk Consulting for Marine Insurance at Allianz Commercial in New York. "And if there is a shipping accident in an environmentally significant area, it becomes even more expensive." With a capacity of 10,000 TEU, the "Dali" is a normal-sized ship by today's standards, says the former sea captain.

It is still unclear how expensive the salvage of the "Dali" and the subsequent costs of the accident could be. Khanna assumes that the ship may not have to be completely unloaded to get it afloat again. "The cost of rebuilding the bridge will definitely be several times more expensive than repairing the ship," says the shipping expert.

As an example of a very expensive accident involving a large cargo ship, the company points to the car carrier "Golden Ray", which capsized off the US port of Brunswick in 2019. "Removing the wreck and cleaning up the surrounding area cost around 800 million dollars," says Khanna. "That was much more expensive than the ship and its cargo were worth."

The port of Baltimore is particularly important for importing cars into the USA. Credit insurer Allianz Trade, which is also part of the Munich-based Dax group, assumes that the overall economic impact of the bridge collapse will be limited. According to official US data, less than two percent of total car sales in the USA were imported via Baltimore last year, which corresponds to around 300,000 vehicles. Therefore, the impact on the automotive sector should be manageable, according to Allianz Trade./cho/DP/zb