Reinsurance rate increases at the June 1 Florida property-catastrophe renewal missed early expectations, JLT Re, a unit of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group P.L.C., said Friday, coming in at low single digits.

JLT Re’s Risk-Adjusted Florida Property-Catastrophe ROL Index rose 1.2% this year, the first increases in seven years, the company said in a statement. Dedicated reinsurance capital were at record levels despite the biggest catastrophe loss year ever in 2017, JLT Re said.

The results improve over last year’s 5.1% reduction, but failed to match the rate increases for U.S. property-catastrophe business at Jan. 1, despite more loss-affected programs renewing after Hurricane Irma’s landfall in Florida last year.

As a result, pricing for Florida property-catastrophe business remains 40% down on 2012 levels and only 13% above the previous cyclical low of 1999-2000.

“The renewal was highly competitive, reflecting abundant capacity and only moderate increases in demand despite the market suffering its most expensive catastrophe loss year on record in 2017,” Brian O’Neill, executive vice president of JLT Re (North America) Inc., said in a statement. 

Abundant reinsurance capital continues to dominate the reinsurance market. JLT Re said it estimated that dedicated sector capital will be at record levels by the end of the first half of 2018, recovering from the modest dip last year after $140 billion plus of insured catastrophe losses. The result is a continued supply and demand imbalance and a market awash with capacity, JLT Re said.

Whatever the outcome of the hurricane season, JLT Re said the reinsurance market is strongly positioned to deal with any potential losses.

There was some evidence through the renewal process of insurance-linked securities players extending provisions into areas traditionally dominated by traditional reinsurers, such as reinstatements, JLT Re said. They proved to be as competitive on price as the traditional market, with single-shot transactions such as top or drop aggregate cover and reinstatement premium protection occasionally coming in cheaper.