Wartime risk takers shield $830 mn daily trade amid threats

Shipping insurance is offered in London since 1680s, yet the business of selling war cover is now peaking

- Bloomberg

Inside faceless office buildings scattered around London, a niche corner of the insurance market is keeping hundreds of billions of dollars in commodity trade moving through some of the world's most dangerous waters.

As conflicts rage in the Middle East and Ukraine, shipping goods is becoming increasingly perilous, with the oceans pocked by the highest number of risky areas in two decades. The Red Sea and Black Sea are vital passageways for oil, coal and grains, and some of those essentials would be stuck in port without insurance against acts of war.