• Av. Nueva Providencia 1901, piso 6
  • +56 2 2431 7000

Marine Services

Marine Services

SGC Marine Services was created with the aim of providing the global marine insurance community a comprehensive and high standard service of commercial correspondents for P&I Clubs, Defense Club (F&DD) and Marine underwriters in general, including local and international carriers operating in Chile, as well as Argentina and Peru, through our associates Vega & Co. Trade & Shipping Lawyers in Argentina.

Our firm offers a comprehensive claims and defense handling service, including marine hull and cargo surveys and loss investigation, as well as loss control activities.  The latter includes loss prevention assistance, including but not limited to holds and tanks inspections, draft surveys, sealing of hatches, pre-loading and off-loading surveys as well tallies.

We provide assistance in the handling of a wide variety of losses, involving not only P&I coverage but H&M, Loss of Hire / freight, FDD cover, amongst others. Additionally, the firm also collaborates with the main container ship owners providing operational surveys arrangements.

Last but not least, our firm offers advice on insurance, legal and claim matters for the local owners and maritime operators here in Chile, on the basis of the experience obtained by the SGC group in many years of handling marine insurance claims and surveys.

We are completely aware of the importance of loss prevention, as a result of which we are in regular contact with all the local entities and authorities, in order to have a comprehensive knowledge of national ports & marine facilities.  This allows us to keep our clients and the shipping community in general continuously updated on any circumstance that may be of interest to them.  In this respect our firm issues circulars, notices or interesting publications on a regular basis, which are circulated through the shipping community, both locally and internationally.

Our Services

Our office provides an integral service to our principals from the incident investigation to the recovery actions support, passing troughs the claims handling themselves in the following fields:

  • • P&I matters ( Collisions, damages to pier or property, crew, spill, stowaways, customs issues, operational matters etc…).
  • • H&M Matters (General Average ,Hull failure / breakdown cases, Groundings cases , Salvatage / refloating cases).
  • • TT underwriters and Intermediaries insurers matters.
  • • Adjustments marine policies ( hull ) and outsource plans of insurance / claim / handling for local operators and shipowners.

More specifically, to name a few, our office provides the following services catalogue:

Regular matters P&I / H&M Matter

  • • Ascertain facts and circumstances of the incident, instructing and supervising competent surveyors as needed
  • • Assist Master in dealing with local Authorities
  • • Take statements from crew and other relevant witnesses
  • • Collect relevant documentation at the case
  • • Collect samples of pollutant substance from vessel and affected areas if any.
  • • Ascertain nature and extent of the damage, instructing and monitoring competent surveyors as needed.
  • • Recommend steps to mitigate loss
  • • Assist in salvage negotiations and process.
  • • In cases of arrest recommend steps to avoid an arrest and ascertain circumstances of the arrest or threat thereof
  • • Negotiate nature and amount of security or bonds
  • • Issue LOUs on P&I underwriters’ behalf and authority
  • • Assist in setting up other types of security
  • • Assist in satisfying other demands from claimants (documentation, statements, inspections, etc.
  • • Instruct, monitor and assist competent lawyers as needed
  • • Claim analysis
  • • Propose strategy to handle claim
  • • Reject claims or negotiate settlement & obtain relevant release
  • • Ascertain circumstances of the legal action
  • • Attempt to stay proceedings and continue handling amicably
  • • Instruct and monitor competent lawyers as necessary
  • • Assist appointed lawyers with facts and technical advice
  • • Monitoring legal proceedings
  • • Assist with settlement payments

General advise

Illness, Injury loss of life (Crew cases)

  • • Ascertain nature and extent of the illness or injury, instructing and monitoring competent physicians and medical facilities as needed
  • • Arrange transportation to suitable medical facilities
  • • Monitor person’s condition and progress, reporting as needed
  • • Arrange repatriation arrangements
  • • Arrange repatriation of remains and personal effects
  • • Assist in arranging funeral services in Chile

Spill cases response and clean up

  • • Ascertain nature of the spill and extent of the affected area, instructing and monitoring competent surveyors as needed
  • • Deal with local  Authorities
  • • Design clean up plan, obtaining necessary approval from competent Authorities
  • • Hire, instruct competent clean up contractors, and monitor their performance on site
  • • Direct and manage clean up effort on site (Clean Up Master, Beach Master)
  • • Process invoices and bills and process payments

Stowaways cases

  • • Interview stowaways and obtain personal data as possible.
  • • Recommend courses of action available
  • • Deal with the Consulate of the country of origin (if there is one in Chile)
  • • Assist in repatriation arrangements

Wreck renowal cases handling

  • • Deal with local Authorities
  • • Assist in designing removal and disposal plan
  • • Monitor wreck removal plan on site
  • • Revise invoices and bills and process payments

Recovery  actions assistance

  • • Identify possible liable third parties
  • • Recommend steps to protect recovery actions
  • • Assist in conducting recovery actions in Chile

General average handling

  • • Advise on procedure to declare GA validly in Chile
  • • Assist Master in said procedures
  • • Assist in collecting Average Bonds
  • • Assist in collecting data relevant to the GA adjustment

Hull damage / grounding / machinery breakdown assistance.

  • • Seek quotes for repairs
  • • Monitor repair work, instructing and monitoring competent surveyors as needed
  • • Revise invoices and bills and process payments

Salvatage / refloating cases  assistance

  • • Monitor Salvage Operation on site
  • • Revise invoices and bills, and process payment

Stop loss practice ( operational matters )

  • • Structural integrity
  • • Containers containered cargo surveys  ( Standard  container + reefers )
  • • Bunker survey ( spec and volume
  • • Repair inspection
  • • Stuffing & sealing inspection
  • • Charter party Survey
  • • Arrange On-hire survey, instructing and monitoring competent surveyors as needed
  • • Arrange Off-hire survey, instructing and monitoring competent surveyors as needed
  • • Pre loading surveys
  • • Pre-entry Condition Survey
  • • Regular Condition Survey
  • • Followe-up Condition Survey
  • • Draft survey
  • • Outturn survey
Our Principles

A service created by and for the shipping community

Our company was created by the SGC Group, exclusively to be at the service of the shipping community and maritime industry, mainly marine underwriters and their assureds, but also independent ship owners and marine operators operating in Chile. As a result, SGC Marine Services operates completely independently from the rest of the Group, as a separate business entity.

In addition, given the small size of the marine market we are aware that conflicts of interest between parties could arise. Our clients will be immediately notified of such conflicts.  Based on prior agreement, we can put strict “Chinese walls” in place between cases and files, assigning these to different handlers within our office.

Immediate response

We guarantee immediate response, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, as we are fully aware that assistance may be required by the Members at any time. In this respect, in addition to the usual office phones, we also provide an exclusive line which can be reached at any time.

Service Excellence

SGC Marine Services has, as a basic premise, the excellence of our work and the ongoing commitment with our clients.

We are a young area with a new vision of work and a motivated team of professionals, with the capacity to provide the necessary assistance to our clients in terms of infrastructure, human resources and technology which enables us to handle matters in a cost effective way.  We have contingency plans and response actions which, when required, together with our detailed knowledge of the regional / local situation in Chile, enables us to offer efficient assistance, for the full range of events, for minor matters to large losses.

Finally, the Group has offices throughout the national territory and the entire Chilean coast, with an extensive net of professionals and collaborators throughout Chile and Argentina.