War cover widens for Gulf cargo

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai

DP World has launched an end-to-end cargo war risk insurance product for businesses moving goods through the Middle East, seeking to close coverage gaps that have widened as conflict risk, rerouting and port congestion reshape trade across the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea and connected inland corridors.

The Dubai-based ports and logistics group said the policy would protect cargo across ocean or air transit, port storage and inland transport under one arrangement, rather than limiting protection to a single stage of the journey. The product is being positioned as a response to a market in which traditional war risk insurance has become fragmented, costly and, for some routes, difficult to obtain.

The offer covers physical loss or damage caused by war-related risks including conflict, civil unrest, seizure and derelict weapons. Valid claims will be settled with zero deductible. Coverage options include end-to-end protection from sea or air movement to final inland delivery, standalone ocean, air or land transit policies, automatic port storage cover for up to 14 days, and limits of up to $400 million per shipment and $1 million per inland movement.

Yuvraj Narayan, Group CEO of DP World, said the programme was designed to address an immediate problem for global trade. “Supply chains don’t stop at the port or the shoreline, and neither should insurance,” he said, adding that cargo owners could now access a single policy covering goods across the full journey in high-risk environments.

The launch comes as the Middle East’s shipping and logistics network faces sustained pressure from security threats, port diversions and higher risk costs. Trade flows through the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea have become more exposed to military incidents, vessel delays, added inspection requirements and shifting carrier decisions. For cargo owners, the problem has not only been higher premiums, but the uncertainty over whether protection remains valid once goods move from vessel to port yard, truck, rail or warehouse.

Traditional cargo insurance often excludes war risk unless purchased separately. Even where war cover is available, it commonly ends at discharge from a vessel or aircraft, leaving exposure during port handling and inland transport. Carriers also generally exclude war-related losses from their standard liability frameworks because such events fall outside their operational control. DP World’s new policy seeks to address that break in coverage by tying insurance to the cargo journey rather than one transport mode.

The commercial significance is heightened by the Gulf’s dependence on efficient multimodal trade. Ports, free zones, road corridors and warehousing networks are deeply linked across the region, with consumer goods, food, industrial components, healthcare products and energy-related equipment moving through several handover points before reaching end users. A cargo container arriving by sea at Jebel Ali, for example, may sit in port storage before customs clearance and then move by truck to an inland customer. Under narrower policies, each stage may require separate cover or may not be protected at all.

Risk has also shifted because shippers are increasingly considering alternative routes and logistics combinations. The UAE’s eastern ports, including Fujairah and Khor Fakkan, have gained strategic importance as access to Gulf waters has faced disruption. Cargo volumes and road movements through those gateways have risen sharply, underlining the role of flexible insurance when goods are moved around chokepoints or transferred across multiple modes.

The Red Sea remains another pressure point for global trade, with attacks and security restrictions having prompted carriers to adjust schedules, change routing, or divert around southern Africa on some services. Longer voyages raise fuel costs, delay deliveries and increase working capital pressure for importers and exporters. Insurance costs have become part of that wider burden, especially for higher-value cargo and shipments passing through zones designated as elevated risk.

For DP World, the move also extends its role beyond port operations into integrated supply chain risk management. The group already operates terminals, logistics facilities, freight forwarding services, economic zones and inland transport assets across major markets. By embedding insurance into the logistics workflow, it is seeking to offer customers a more predictable service during a period when security risk has become a board-level concern for manufacturers, retailers, commodity traders and freight forwarders.