Marine cargo and specie risk

Marine cargo and specie are some of the world’s oldest lines of business with specific vulnerabilities that are difficult to capture in a standard catastrophe model. Moody’s offers a specialized modeling framework that addresses these challenges and provides comprehensive data for risk management. Tailored to the marine market’s needs, our framework effectively helps you understand marine cargo and specie risks and enhance risk management across multiple perils worldwide.

How we help
Where we help
News & views

Get in touch

What we do

Our marine cargo and specie framework helps protect against unexpected cargo catastrophe loss with a model designed to capture cargo risk at each point in the supply chain, from raw materials to finished goods.

Identify and monitor cargo accumulations

Track and assess vulnerable concentrations of static cargo across the entire supply chain, from ports to distribution centers and warehouses.

Capture marine cargo’s distinct attributes

Accurately collect and effectively analyze the specialized characteristics of marine cargo and specie that standard property catastrophe models cannot account for.

Close gaps in industry knowledge

Access comprehensive, industry-leading data on major ports and other areas of global accumulation, including their geospatial layout, seasonal variations, and storage protection standards.

Speak to our team today

Interested in learning more about our offerings? Our solutions specialists are ready to help.

Get in touch

How we help

Seamless integration with multiple peril models

We designed our marine cargo and specie risk model to be a powerful add-on to our preexisting peril models. It integrates seamlessly into our vulnerability module and leverages the same event sets, geocoding, hazard, and financial engines that power our base models. Compatible with a wide range of models — including wind, surge, earthquake, and severe convective storm and flood models in North America and Europe — it enhances your ability to manage risk across multiple perils worldwide.

Capture unique liability and vulnerability characteristics

Marine cargo and specie have distinct vulnerabilities that differ significantly from standard building contents. For example, marine cargo tends to be carefully packaged for shipping, kept in many different storage configurations, and is more likely to be extensively salvaged. Our marine cargo and specie model recognizes these differences by incorporating 18 product categories and 12 storage types, along with secondary modifiers that account for salvage potential, packaging, and storage protection. With over 2,000 different vulnerability functions, you can better reflect the real-world risk of marine cargo and specie, capturing factors that standard catastrophe models miss.

Considerations for time and seasonality

Marine cargo and specie are different in that they are not vulnerable year-round — their risk exposure is limited to the time spent on insured premises. We designed our model to reflect this with tailored modifiers that capture dwell time at ports and seasonal variations, which may allow for more insightful risk assessment.

Comprehensive global port industry exposure data

Our Global Port Industry Exposure Database (IED) offers a detailed view of the world's largest ports, covering 185 ports across 45 countries and representing 80% of global tonnage throughput. Of these ports, 51 are high resolution, featuring bespoke shapefiles compatible with any mapping software. This IED incorporates many critical insights into port characteristics, including average and peak exposure risk, geospatial layouts of different structures and terminals and their associated risks, elevation profiles of cargo concentrations, and the ports' average dwell time and seasonality, providing you with data to make informed decisions.

Where we help

Regional and country marine cargo and specie models

News and views

Spotlight on catastrophe risk

Read our latest insights on catastrophes around the world.

Learn more

blog

Moody's

No more guessing games for marine insurers

Outdated marine risk modeling tools and incomplete data obscure many high-risk locations, big and small. These ports are vulnerable due to natural hazards, the cargo they handle, and the specific ways cargo is stored. However, some in the marine sector may lack these insights. Moody’s RMS Marine Cargo Model provides insights for assessing catastrophe risks and port accumulations.

blog

Moody's

Hurricane Harvey: Impact on marine cargo

Since its release in 2016, (re)insurers have actively used Moody’s RMS Marine Cargo Model to study, understand, and quantify the risk to marine cargo exposures from earthquakes, hurricanes, and storm surges. Analysis of cargo exposures at the Port of Houston reveals bulk cargo — which can be particularly susceptible to damage when stored in open lots — represents a large proportion of the Port of Houston’s traffic. According to Moody’s RMS estimates, an average daily value of $2.4 billion in bulk cargo is at risk.

blog

Moody's

Searching for surprise catastrophes: The Beirut explosion

Catastrophe risk analysts associate Beirut with earthquake, tsunami, terrorism, and civil war risks. Such events are well documented in Beirut’s long history, and insurers should know that severe damage might be inflicted by these perils. In the absence of any historical precedent, what could have prepared insurers for the catastrophic loss from the massive ammonium nitrate explosion in Beirut’s port? Moody’s RMS has devised such a procedure based on reimagining the historical record and considering downward counterfactuals — scenarios where things might have turned for the worse.