A 6 July article by Adam Corbett highlights the stark recognition by the International Salvage Union (ISU) of the financial issues facing the salvage industry.

The Salvage & Wreck Conference in London in December 2017 brought to the fore the use of side letters, varying the terms of the Lloyd's Open Form (LOF) into more commercial or capped arrangements.

Despite the optimism expressed by the ISU at the conference on the slight increase in the number of LOFs being issued, as reported in that same month at the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) conference in Tokyo, it was thought that more than 50% of the LOFs were hybrids.