DP World rolls out war-risk insurance for Iran-blocked cargo

DP World, the Dubai-owned port operator that handles 10% of all global container traffic, is introducing a war-risk insurance plan aimed at companies suffering cargo losses connected to the Iran conflict.

With some 1,500 vessels immobilized by the two-month-old blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, DP World’s insurance plan will offer as much as $400 million per shipment, according to the state-run Emirates News Agency.

Policies, which cover shipping, air freight and trucking routes, also apply to the Red Sea, which has periodically been blocked by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Meanwhile, UAE’s national oil company ADNOC has kept some LNG exports moving through the strait by going dark – instructing tankers to switch off their tracking signals so they pass undetected through the Gulf waters, Bloomberg reports.

As the Gulf states have managed to transport petroleum and gas overland across the Arabian Peninsula to reach foreign ports, Iran has also been shifting more trade with China onto rail lines to get around a U.S. counter-blockade on its shipping routes, according to Bloomberg.