How multinational cargo programs can help build resilient supply chains

Shipping and logistics remains a highly time-sensitive and critical aspect of any businesses. In today’s competitive, yet unpredictable landscape, the ability to deliver goods to customers on time and in good order has become a strategic advantage.

Yet supply chain exposures have changed significantly and rapidly over a relatively short period of time, driven by successive global disruptions and structural shifts. Geopolitics has continued to redraw trade and supply chains (tariffs impacted an estimated $400bn in global trade flows in 2025 alone). At the same time, shipping and cargo risks have become more complex and interconnected, with changes in shipping routes, automation, extreme weather, lithium-battery fires and more sophisticated cargo theft.

In this environment, multinational businesses need to be able to anticipate disruption, and adapt quickly across global operations. According to the World Economic Forum, 60% more leaders see resilience and agility as core to competitive advantage and growth than they did five years ago. To this end, many are leveraging multinational cargo insurance programs to gain further insights, prevent losses and ensure a faster more cohesive response to events or changes in risk.

Building resilience through visibility and oversight

Multinational programs support resilience by providing end-to-end risk visibility and global coordination of loss prevention efforts and insurance. Centrally administered multinational programs - aided by technology - enable insureds to achieve greater transparency of data, gaining insights that support decision making and strategy.

Equipped with better information, business can react faster to events and loss trends, using data proactively to take action, build resilience and avoid business interruption. For example, when provided with country insights into theft or security risks, companies will often adapt their shipping strategy – such as reduce the value per transport or change the route or time of transport – which is then reflected in their local policy under a multinational approach.

With supply chain risks increasingly extending beyond marine, a multinational program can provide the global risk and insurance manager with a comprehensive overview of supply chain risks and help identify and mitigate interconnected risks. For instance, many cargo related risks arise from the risk quality of warehouse and production facilities, while damage can occur in transport due to improper lashing, cargo handling and driver behavior. Cybercrime has recently emerged as a mechanism for criminals to facilitate cargo theft, emphasizing the need for robust cyber risk management that extends to shippers and their logistic partners.

Real-time information and insights

Technology platforms, such as the My Zurich portal, give customers access to up-to-date information on exposures, risk mitigation, insurance policies and claims. In addition, software applications and their associated APIs enable businesses to download data in real-time and integrate it into their own systems, including supply chain management and risk management information systems. Data alignment provides the opportunity to gain a holistic view of risk, the ability to leverage advanced analytical capabilities i.e. AI, and supports better risk decisions.

Multinational programs supported by self-service platforms like My Zurich enable customers to quickly access insurance policies and documentation, a task that can be time consuming where insurance is fragmented. The ability to evidence insurance cover and issue certificates quickly, for example, is essential to avoiding delays and holdups.

Faster, coordinated response

Damage or delay to goods in storage or in transit can quickly escalate into serious disruption for customers, and reputational harm for the insured. While cargo risks and claims often require rapid, coordinated responses across multiple countries. No single location holds all the expertise, so effective global networks, clear governance and alignment across global and local stakeholders are critical to connect and deploy specialist expertise and resource where it is needed.

A multinational solution coordinates and administers insurance, risk engineering and claims at a global level, combining a dedicated multinational team with specialist marine cargo and local market experts. Formalized processes and established lines of communication – supported by technology - connect various stakeholders, both globally and locally. This helps build supply chain resilience through faster, more proactive intervention and responses across the network.

Multinational programs also provide risk managers and supply chain risk professionals with much needed support, expertise and resource at a time of increasing risk complexity, regulatory fragmentation and cost pressures. In addition to helping centralize and coordinate insurance coverage and administration, multinational programs help manage total cost of risk, with more efficient risk mitigation, insurance structures and lower loss costs.

Complex, cross-border claims

Given the potentially significant impact of delays or losses, business and their customers expect rapid resolution of cargo claims. A multinational programme provides globally coordinated claims handling for complex, cross-border losses, while enabling claims to be adjusted and paid locally by specialist and experienced cargo and multinational claims handlers. It also enables businesses to step-in and mitigate losses more quickly and effectively.

A coordinated approach with global oversight can quickly address issues identified through claims with targeted risk engineering and loss prevention. For example, global claims monitoring identified a growing trend of theft losses for a Zurich client shipping from Europe using the US government secure supply chain program. Following the implementation of recommendations from Zurich’s risk engineering team, the problem was quickly resolved and avoided potential sanctions and delays.

Globally consistent, locally relevant

Global oversight of cargo insurance, backed-up by local underwriting knowledge, ensures that the coverage intentions at a group level flow down to local reality, and help avoid unwanted gaps in cover or underinsurance.

A multinational program combines the consistency and higher standards of coverage and limits of a global master policy with the benefits of a local policy, where desired or needed. Local policies are particularly valuable for meeting the specific needs of local markets, especially for regions that face higher risks of theft or natural hazards. Local advice is indispensable to ensure wording, loss prevention requirements and claims processes are best suited to local conditions or specialist cargos.

Cargo experts on-the-ground understand local conditions, criminal behavior and best in class security standards, which is essential to combat rising theft activity (TAPA recorded €2.6bn in cargo-related theft losses in EMEA between 2024 and 2025). For example, cargo security requirements and practices in Europe would be inadequate for high-theft countries in Latin America.

Conclusion

Multinational cargo insurance programs are a key element of resilient supply chains, supporting greater visibility, more coordinated and proactive loss prevention, risk transfer and claims. In a fast-moving complex environment, the ability to respond quickly and consistently across markets is a key differentiator.

Camilla Chandra, Global Head of Underwriting, Marine, Martin Clark, Energy, Marine and Engineering Lines Claims, Zurich Global Specialty and Björn Hartong, Global Head of Marine Risk Engineering, Security & Supply Chain, Zurich Resilience Solutions

Originally published on Commercial Risk on July 14