ZURICH (Reuters)—The prices the reinsurance industry can charge primary insurers in premiums to cover their own risks have not increased and are unlikely to do so without a major natural catastrophe, reinsurance executives said.

The reinsurance industry had forecast battered insurers would seek to bolster their capital in the crisis by buying reinsurance cover to pass on insurance risk, boosting demand and prices, but it was unable to hike premiums as it had hoped.

"This industry really has trouble raising rates unless there's some catastrophe," Franklin Montross, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reinsurance unit General Re, told a reinsurance conference in Zurich on Wednesday.

The earthquake in Chile and winter storm Xynthia in Europe earlier this year had not been enough to 'harden', or increase, prices on their own, executives said.

"The high level of natural catastrophe losses in the first quarter is not a market-changing event," said AXIS Re Europe CEO Karl Mayr. "It is a soft market now and is softening."

Reinsurers like Munich Reinsurance Co., Swiss Reinsurance Co. Ltd. and Hannover Reinsurance Co. typically face their biggest payouts in the second and third quarters of the year, when the U.S. hurricane season peaks.

There was already enough capacity in the market to cover clients' needs, Mr. Mayr said, adding this was putting pressure on prices.

"We are seeing more aggressive purchasing behaviour from costumers and brokers now," he said. "Reinsurance markets are not growing, so we have to expect increased competition in the market."

General Re's Mr. Montross said he was disappointed at reinsurers failing resolve to demand higher prices from clients.

"I thought there would be more discipline in the reinsurance market but we're not seeing that now," he said. "We're at a critical point now going into the 2011 renewal period."

Warren Buffett-owned Berkshire Hathaway and AXIS Re are the world's fourth- and 18th-largest reinsurers, respectively, measured by net written premiums.