Marine Insurance

UIB arranges marine cover for importers, exporters, freight forwarders, logistics companies and vessel owners trading through Jebel Ali, Khalifa Port and the UAE’s other major hubs, as well as businesses moving goods by air and road as part of a wider supply chain. The right structure depends heavily on what you move, how often, and by which route.

For regular traders, we typically recommend an open cargo cover policy over insuring shipments one by one; it removes the admin of certificate requests and guarantees rates are agreed in advance rather than negotiated under pressure after a loss. Cover is built around Institute Cargo Clauses, with the level chosen against your goods’ fragility and route risk, and we are clear on what each level excludes, particularly around inadequate packing or inherent vice, which cargo policies never cover.

For vessel owners and operators, marine hull cover responds to physical loss or damage to the vessel itself, while P&I cover handles third-party liabilities, crew claims and pollution, arranged through P&I clubs we access via our reinsurance relationships. UAE cargo moving through free zones can carry additional documentation requirements at customs, and our team factors that into claims support so a paperwork gap doesn’t delay a settlement.

A question we hear often: does cargo cover apply during warehousing between transit legs? Only if the policy is extended for storage, which we check and add at placement rather than leaving clients to find out at claim stage.