The 12 August explosions at Tianjin Port are set to become one of Asia's largest insured man-made loss events, with losses estimated at up to 3.3 billion USD, the highest estimate provided so far.
Guy Carpenter, a leading global risk and reinsurance specialist and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan, gave the estimate in a report last week on the catastrophe. The report provides initial loss estimates and outlines the many variables involved in assessing the losses emanating from the explosions. It provides a preliminary estimate of insured losses from many classes including: containers; cargo in containers; property; automobiles; and general aviation.
“The explosions that occurred in Tianjin, China, are likely to constitute one of the largest insured man-made losses to date in Asia and will certainly be considered one of the most complex insurance and reinsurance losses in recent history,” said Mr James Nash, CEO of Asia Pacific Operations for Guy Carpenter.
The fireball and shock wave from the explosions blasted shipping containers; incinerated vehicles in the port and on an adjacent highway overpass; destroyed warehouses, production facilities and dormitories; impacted the nearby Donghai Road Railway Station and blew out windows within residential structures for several kilometres.
While access to the site is limited, CAT-VIEWSM (Guy Carpenter’s satellite-based catastrophe evaluation service), was able to utilise high resolution pre- and post-event satellite imagery to understand what exposures were present at the time of the blast and therefore could contribute to the loss.
Guy Carpenter estimates the damages at between 1.6 billion USD and 3.3 billion USD, compared with between 1 billion USD and 1.5 billion USD Credit Suisse analysts had estimated just days after the blasts in August.
