“Insurance of port construction is considered one of the heavier types of civil engineering risk,” he says.

His sentiments are echoed by Brian Elliot, construction team leader at Marsh, who says: “Certainly, in the eyes of the insurance market – and, I think, legitimately – ports are regarded as more hazardous projects than most.”

He says key aspects include the resource risk in terms of labour and materials; the challenges associated with new entrants to the construction market with possibly less technical knowledge than traditional international major contractors; and issues of communication, culture and control – for example, if you have a contractor from China working on a project in the Middle East.

“Then there are issues of global warming, innovative design and innovative project configuration – all of which may lead to changes in hydrological behaviour, to which other adjacent ports might be exposed. Insurers considering marine construction risks look at wave characteristics and height and storm history, as far as records are available – but the problem is, these statistics can have less value because of these [aforementioned] issues.”

And as port projects inevitably become larger and more ambitious in line with the size and design of today’s ships, so the longer construction periods involved require longer commitment by insurers – “which will increase the challenge in what is for them already a very difficult sector”, says Mr Elliot.

Antonia Simpson, Marsh’s vice president in construction, power and utilities, says ports and their advisers must consider – and tackle – a vast range of issues in order to make insurers feel comfortable with what they are doing.

“We recommend to our clients that they do road shows,” she says. “Road shows are invaluable, getting the client in front of the insurers and doing a big presentation to secure comfort that the client [and partners] are very good at what they do and have the experience.

“This is obviously a very specialised activity – it is not like the sort of building projects where a whole host of people could do the work.”

Marsh says it is a good idea to roll out the project manager at the road show, to demonstrate his or her technical expertise. “Their ability to control contractors, especially contractors of different nationality or culture, will be absolutely key. And insurers do carefully check the qualifications and experience of the parties involved.”

Above all, insurers want detail, says Ms Simpson. “They like to get into the nitty gritty of hydrology analysis or soil studies, and make sure that the all the people who have done these reports are experienced. So it starts right at the cutting edge. Insurers want to get that comfort, from the data collected right through to the construction phase.

“Interpretation of these reports is paramount; if they have not been analysed properly, this could have an effect on the design adopted, and lead to a series of events that could be catastrophic.”

At a more obvious level, the cost of raw materials – steel, concrete – continues to rise with, of course, a knock-on effect on the sums insured. “This inflates the repair costs in the event of loss, so it all flows through into the insurance market,” says Ms Simpson.