About us
What We Do
We are primarily commercial Correspondents for P&I (Protection & Indemnity), H&M (Hull and Machinery) and FD&D (Freight, Detention and Demurrage) mutual associations and other Marine Insurers and offer a full claim and defence handling package, including marine and cargo surveys and incident investigations, in a practical, reliable and knowledgeable way. We also deliver tailor-made claim management and advisory services for leading shipowners and transport operators.
Whilst we are not a branch of the Clubs nor their agents, in the sense that we cannot accept legal proceedings on their or their Members’ behalf, we literally function as their eyes and ears in the region we serve, keeping them informed of regional developments and practices that concern their Members’ activities as well as loss prevention initiatives and marketing opportunities.
In this changing and litigious world we live in, the multitude of claims and disputes that a carrier can face in the course of their day-to-day business is of a wide-ranging variety and we are prepared to assist them wherever necessary, round the clock 365 days a year.
Even though for a Correspondent there can be no better learning than hands-on experience, we constantly invest in training and education of the staff, our most precious resource. By maintaining close contact with the Clubs we act for, we benefit from the wealth of information and knowledge they pool from their worldwide sources. As a way of offering our principals an integrated and unbiased service, we cooperate and interact with fellow Correspondents in other key Brazilian ports and abroad.
Due to the troubleshooting nature of our job, our daily routine can be tough at times. Since in most of the cases our intervention would be sought when things have already gone wrong or there are prospects of an imminent loss, people would understandably be under time and commercial pressure and action has to be taken immediately to avert or minimise losses.
Indeed, a Correspondent would be the last person a shipowner or a Master would think of when things go just fine. Conversely, the work of a Correspondent is very rewarding, for at the same time it places us before challenging cases, it gives us the opportunity to meet people of different nationalities and cultures and make friends in all fields of the shipping industry all over the world.
Boredom is something that we do not know. Serving the busiest ports in the country and dealing with a broad spectrum of problems that afflict the shipowners and charterers, enable us to handle a diversity of incidents and claims.
On a busy week, we may be arranging the repatriation of a stowaway; negotiating a cargo shortage with a recovery agent; resolving a stowage dispute in one vessel; appointing and monitoring a lawyer in the release of vessel arrested by a claimant; yet investigating an accident where a downfall of a container into a vessel hold resulted in damages to the vessel, her cargo, and bodily injuries to a stevedore. Other fateful events, such as oil pollution or deviation of a vessel to land an ill crewmember, may complete a rather troublesome week of a Correspondent.
