CONSTRUCTION FIRMS BRACING FOR SOARING COSTS AND RISK

摘要

Like ripples in a pond, warnings about the hardening insurance market are spreading across the industry. Companies of all kinds will have to get an early jump on policy renewals and change the way they operate or get hammered on premiums. And some coverage, such as that for terrorism-related events, will not be available at any cost. The insurance problem is being compounded because many people working in the construction industry have never experienced an unfavorable insurance cycle, the last one being in 1984-87. And, the World Trade Center attacks are likely to cost insurers $40 billion to $50 billion. The soft insurance market with easy terms and rates lasted 17 years instead of the usual five to six-year cycle, so "people have not been through a really hard market," says William Mclntyre IV, chairman of American Contractors Insurance Group Ltd., Dallas, an industry-owned captive insurance company.