P&I Renewal 2026: What Is Driving the General Increase

Twelve clubs went into the 20 February 2026 renewal and only seven of them declared a formal general increase. The published figures ran from 5% at NorthStandard, the Swedish Club, the Shipowners' Club, West of England and Japan P&I, through 7.5% at the UK Club, to 8% at Steamship Mutual, on Marsh's renewal tracker. The other five clubs declared no general increase at all and went after targeted adjustments on individual records instead.

There is no single 2026 general increase, and anyone quoting one number for the market is quoting a club rather than the market. Individual clubs announce their own figures, in their own circulars, on their own boards' authority.

What is worth understanding is the machinery underneath, because the same pressures that produced the 2026 numbers are still running and they will produce the next set.

Key Facts: The 2026 P&I General Increase

What is a general increase? A percentage uplift applied by a club across its whole mutual book, announced by the board ahead of the common renewal date, before any adjustment for an individual member's own record. It is a starting point for the renewal conversation rather than the final number on any one entry.

When is the P&I renewal? Noon GMT on 20 February each year, the common renewal date across the International Group, which is why club boards announce their premium policy in the preceding October and November.

How does a general increase differ from a rating adjustment? A general increase moves everybody; a rating adjustment moves you, based on your claims record, your fleet profile, your trading pattern and your loss ratio. Five clubs in 2026 skipped the general increase and targeted the adjustment instead, which produces a similar aggregate outcome by a different route.

What did the clubs say was driving 2026? UK P&I's board circular cited pool claims developing faster than anticipated, its own pool share ranking third highest in two decades, and attritional loss inflation running at approximately 4% per annum. Steamship Mutual's board pointed to increasing frequency and severity of claims both within retention and within the Pool, with five Pool claims exceeding club retention during the policy year.

Did reinsurance costs push the 2026 numbers up? Not uniformly. On Gard's circular setting out the International Group arrangements for the 2026 policy year, Group excess of loss rates per gross ton fell 8.0% for persistent oil tankers, 5.0% for dry cargo and 8.5% for passenger vessels, held flat for clean tankers, and rose 15.0% for fully cellular containerships.

What is the club retention for 2026? $10 million, unchanged, with the Pool then covering $90 million in excess of that and commercial market reinsurance attaching at $100 million. The Group describes the pooling mechanism as sharing claims up to approximately $8.9 billion, and what any individual entry covers remains subject to the club rules and the terms of entry.

For the club system itself, see what P&I insurance is. For the cover being renewed, see protection and indemnity insurance, and for the asset side of the same programme, hull and machinery insurance.

What a general increase actually is

A club is a mutual. Its members are its owners, its premium is a call rather than a price, and its board sets the level of that call by reference to what the club expects to pay out and what it needs to hold in reserve.

The general increase is the board's instruction to the underwriting team about where the whole book should start. It is announced in advance so that members and brokers can plan, and it applies to the estimated total call across the mutual entry rather than to any individual rating.

Where owners get confused is in expecting the general increase to be the number on their own invoice. It almost never is. A member with a clean five year record and a modern fleet may renew below the general increase; a member coming off a bad year may renew well above it.

That gap is the whole point of the mutual structure. The general increase carries the book, and the individual adjustment carries the member's own record.

General increase against individual rating adjustment

Clubs that declined a general increase in 2026 were not being generous. The American Club targeted an overall increase in the pricing of risk of 8% on expiring rates, Skuld targeted an overall adjustment of 7.5% on premium rates, the London Club targeted 6% on average rates and Britannia targeted a minimum of 5% on expiring estimated total call rates, on Marsh's tracker. Gard's own circular set out an average 5% premium increase on estimated total call for the 2026 renewal, alongside a 10% Owners' General Discount for mutual members.

Same destination, different road. A club without a headline general increase can still move its book by 7% or 8% through the individual conversation, and a member reading only the headline will misread the market.

Driver one: claims inflation

Attritional claims inflation is the quiet driver and the one clubs mention first. UK P&I's board put it at approximately 4% per annum, with general expense inflation running at a similar level, in the circular announcing the 2026 increase.

Four percent compounding on a book that pays out over several years does not stay small. It shows up in repair yard rates, in medical costs for crew claims in high cost jurisdictions, in salvage and wreck removal contracting, and in the cost of the lawyers and surveyors who handle the files.

The Swedish Club made the same point about elevated cost per claim rather than claim frequency. A club can have a quiet year for incident numbers and still see its claims cost rise, which is exactly the pattern that produces a general increase in a year that felt uneventful on the water.

Driver two: the Pool

The Pool is where the general increase is usually decided. Claims above the individual club retention of $10 million are shared between the twelve clubs under the Pooling Agreement, so a large casualty at one club lands on the accounts of all twelve.

UK P&I recorded that pool claims were again developing at a faster rate than anticipated, and that its own share ranked as the third highest in the past two decades, driven by a small number of very large claims. Steamship Mutual recorded five Pool claims exceeding club retention during the policy year, together with worse than budgeted development on prior years.

Pool losses are lumpy by nature. A single container fire, a wreck removal in a difficult location or a serious pollution event can move the entire Group's cost base for a policy year, and no individual member's loss prevention programme changes that.

That is the argument for mutuality and also the argument owners find hardest to accept at renewal. A clean record does not insulate you from a bad Pool year; it only insulates you from the individual adjustment on top.

Driver three: reinsurance, which did not do what people assume

The most common assumption about 2026 is that reinsurance drove the increase. On the published rates, it mostly did not.

The International Group's programme for 2026/27 keeps the club retention at $10 million, pools $90 million above that in three layers with Hydra, the Group's captive, reinsuring above $30 million, and attaches commercial market reinsurance at $100 million. Layer 1 is $650 million excess of $100 million, layer 2 is $750 million excess of $750 million, layer 3 is $850 million excess of $1.5 billion, with a collective overspill of $1 billion excess of $2.35 billion above that.

The rates charged to members for that programme moved down for most of the fleet. Gard's circular on the 2026 arrangements records persistent oil tankers down 8.0% per gross ton, dry cargo down 5.0%, passenger down 8.5%, and clean tankers held flat.

The exception is containers. Fully cellular containerships went up 15.0% per gross ton, which reflects where the Group's large loss experience has been concentrated. Container operators in this region felt that increase directly, and it is one of the few places in 2026 where a reinsurance movement translated cleanly into a member's cost.

Tanker owners had the opposite year. A persistent oil tanker operator lifting cargo out of the Malaysian and Singaporean terminals paid less per gross ton for Group reinsurance in 2026/27 than in 2025/26, even while the club's own general increase pushed the rest of the entry up, and the cargo side of that same trade is covered in energy and petroleum cargo insurance.

Preparing a P&I renewal submission?

We place P&I directly with the clubs and underwriters who write these risks in Malaysia and Singapore, and we will tell you where your submission is weak before the underwriter does. Start through the quote request form or on WhatsApp.

Driver four: sanctions and war risk exposure

The fourth pressure is harder to price and it does not appear as a line in any circular. Clubs have spent the last several years absorbing compliance cost from sanctions regimes that change faster than underwriting cycles, and carrying exposure to vessels trading in and around areas listed by the Joint War Committee.

For owners and charterers trading out of Malaysian and Singaporean ports the practical consequence is a longer and more searching set of questions at renewal about trading patterns, ownership structures, ship to ship transfer activity, AIS practice and counterparties.

The compliance side of that has already reshaped the cargo market in this region, which is set out in sanctions clauses in cargo insurance and in Strait of Hormuz cargo insurance in 2026. The same underwriting instinct is now applied to liability entries.

A member who cannot answer those questions cleanly will pay for the uncertainty in the individual adjustment, whatever the general increase happens to be.

What to prepare before the next 20 February

The renewal submission is the one part of this an owner or charterer fully controls, and it is routinely left until January.

Start with the claims record, presented honestly and with the remedial action attached. An underwriter reading a file of three crew injuries in eighteen months wants to see what changed in the safety management system afterwards, and a member who supplies that unprompted is negotiating from a different position than one who does not.

Get the fleet data straight: tonnage, age, class, flag, trading limits, crew nationality mix and manning agency. Then get the operational narrative straight, covering any change in trade, any new charterers, and any move into or out of sensitive areas.

Review the deductible schedule before the underwriter proposes one. Several clubs moved deductibles for 2026, with Steamship Mutual applying them to associated fees, costs and expenses as well as the underlying claim, and UK P&I applying a targeted 10% increase to all deductibles below $50,000 with a minimum increase of $1,000.

Charterers should run the same exercise on their own account rather than assuming the owner's renewal covers them, which is set out in charterers' liability and charterers' P&I. And any member renewing P&I should check that the hull programme sitting alongside it still lines up, using the boundary set out in P&I against hull and machinery.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was there a single P&I general increase for 2026?

No. Seven International Group clubs declared a formal general increase for the 20 February 2026 renewal, on Marsh's tracker, ranging from 5% to 8%, and five declared none and pursued targeted rating adjustments instead. Individual clubs announce their own figures in their own circulars; the International Group does not set a market-wide number.

Why is the renewal date 20 February?

It is the common renewal date across the International Group, at noon GMT, which is why club boards publish their premium policy the preceding autumn. A common date lets the Group place its collective excess of loss reinsurance on a single programme year and lets members compare terms across clubs at the same moment.

Does a general increase mean my premium rises by that percentage?

No. The general increase sets the starting point for the whole mutual book, and your own renewal is then adjusted for your claims record, fleet profile and trading pattern. Members with strong records regularly renew below the announced general increase, and members coming off a poor year regularly renew above it.

What is the Pool and why does it affect my premium?

The Pool is the sharing mechanism under which claims above each club's $10 million retention are borne across all twelve International Group clubs. A heavy Pool year at another club still lands on your club's accounts, which is why Pool development is one of the first things boards cite when announcing an increase.

Did reinsurance costs go up for 2026?

Not for most vessel types. On Gard's circular for the 2026 policy year, Group excess of loss rates per gross ton fell for persistent oil tankers, dry cargo and passenger vessels and were unchanged for clean tankers. Fully cellular containerships were the exception, at an increase of 15.0%.

What is a release call and does it matter at renewal?

A release call is the payment a member makes to leave a club with open policy years closed off, so the club is not left carrying that member's share of future development. It matters because it is a real cost of moving, and it should be quantified before you treat a competing quotation as cheaper.

What most improves my position in a renewal negotiation?

A complete, early submission with the claims record presented alongside the remedial action taken. Underwriters price uncertainty, so gaps in fleet data, unexplained losses or vague answers about trading patterns and counterparties cost money. The submission is the part of the renewal you control entirely.

Voyage Conclusion

The 2026 renewal is best read as a claims cost story rather than a reinsurance story, with attritional inflation at around 4% a year and a heavy run of Pool claims doing most of the work, while Group excess of loss rates actually fell for most of the fleet. The number that ends up on your entry is set less by the headline and more by how well you can explain your own record.

Voyage places P&I, hull and machinery and marine liability cover directly with the clubs and underwriters who write these risks for owners, operators and charterers in Malaysia and Singapore, without the intermediary layer that gets added to bundled placements. Cargo owners running a parallel renewal should look at open cover and the four questions to ask at open cover renewal. Bring us your expiring terms through the quote request form or on WhatsApp and we will come back inside 24 to 48 hours.

Disclaimer: This article provides general guidance on the 2026 P&I renewal and the general increase mechanism as of September 2026. Coverage terms, conditions, and availability vary by insurer, policy, and jurisdiction. Regulatory requirements differ between countries and may change.

Always review your specific policy wording and consult a qualified insurance or legal professional before making coverage decisions.