Third quarter catastrophes propelled US property casualty insurers to an underwriting loss of $2.8 billion through September 2005 despite solid results posted for the first half of 2005.

A recent study by AM Best Co. showed the US property/casualty industry recorded a $13.3 billion profit in the first six months of 2005.

Third-quarter US-insured catastrophe losses contributed to an estimated total of $31.7 billion through the first nine months of 2005, the industry?s worst nine-month period ever, Best said.

?This underwriting loss also represents a $6.2 billion change of direction when compared with the results reported during the comparable period of 2004, when the industry turned a $3.4 billion profit,? Best said.

Last year was the most active hurricane on record with 19 storms including Hurricane Katrina and an estimated $23.5 billion in US-insured losses. In 2004, there were 13 named storms and r$15 billion in insured losses.

In the first nine-months of the year, the property/casualty industry experienced the seventh consecutive quarter of rate reductions, with commercial accounts experiencing an average third-quarter premium decrease of 8.2 percent, according to the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers? Commercial Market Index Survey.

AM Best Co. data showed net premiums written for the entire industry decreased only 0.3 percent when compared with the nine-month period of 2004.

Softening market conditions and significant insured catastrophe losses through the first nine months of 2005 pushed the property/casualty industry?s combined ratio, a key measure of underwriting profitability, up two points to 99.9 through September, 2005. For the nine-month period of 2004, the combined ratio was 97.9.