Thursday, February 14, 2008

Snowstorm Insurance Claims in China Reach $165 Million

by Richard York

The recent snowstorms may not have much affected the economy of China but it has certainly shaken the insurance industry of China. The recent ice and snow storms in China that began to wreck havoc from January 10 were the worst that the nation experienced in the last fifty years according to the Xinhua news agency. By the end of January this year the Chinese insurers had paid over 100 million Yuan or $13.9 million to people who claimed insurance. The latest figure for the insurance claims in China has now climbed to $165 millions and this figure is of the first half of the month of February of the current year. The figures of the insurance industry of China state that Chinese insurers like PICC, Ping An and China Pacific Insurance have devised their emergency plans so that the payments of the claims can become quick and smooth for the people. The business manager of PICC, Jiang Caishi said that his company has offered the claim payments that were below 3,000 Yuan or $417 as on the spot payment basis.

The insurance firms had also offered twenty four hour phone services so that the customer’s claims can be entertained as fast as possible. The claims that the companies received were mainly from the 14 provinces of China and the regions also included Iangsu, Fujian, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan. The China Insurance Regulatory Commission had warned the firms not to delay or reject the insurance payments for the people. The overall total for the pending insurance claims is not yet available however Zhang Zhongning, the spokesman for the insurance commission has said that the claims from the Hunan province stood at 3 billion Yuan that is $420 million. Insiders of the insurance industry of China say that bad weather has gripped a wide area of China and has affected as many as 100 million people but the total loss is relatively lower.

A manager at the China Pacific Insurance said that ninety percent of the insurance claims have been filed for vehicle damage. The Vice President of the Sunshine Property and Casualty Insurance gave another important opinion he said that the number of unreported cases can be higher as the storms affected the communication services in some regions of the country. The number of insurance claims for physical casualties topped the list. The Ping an insurance firm distributed 53.8 million Yuan which is $7.48 million through its 13 branches. The firm’s insurance payments were for 18,752 insurance claims.

One surprising thing about the insurance claims due to the snow storms is that there have not been big insurance claims from the nation’s agriculture sector and the reason for this according to Jiang Caishi of PICC is that the farmers had already prepared for the storms and they had already sought some steps so that the damage could be kept to its minimum. The agriculture sector so far has received 40 million Yuan, which comes to around $5.6 million. Thus the insurance claims from the agriculture sector of China have been far less than expected by the insurance industry.

 

 

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