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East coast pirates operating further offshore

23 Sep 2011

According to Island View Shipping GM Jeremy Miles, attempts to combat piracy up the east coast of Africa this year were largely unsuccessful; pirates have moved from areas patrolled by foreign navies, to open seas further away.

Island View Shipping is a dry bulk shipping subsidiary of Grindrod, whose earnings were affected by piracy last year because its vessels had to be diverted around high-risk areas into the Indian Ocean as far as possible, increasing the number of shipping days and overall shipping costs.

For Jeremy Miles, the piracy problem remained "serious". Statistics from the International Chamber of Commerce Commercial Crime Services shows that there were 326 piracy attacks worldwide this year, with a total of 33 hijackings.

The South African Maritime Safety Authority's executive head of the Centre for Ships, Sobantu Tilayi, said navies operating off Africa's east coast "can only hope to make a difference" because piracy would not cease until there was a political solution, and proper governance, in Somalia. The authority detected pirate activity in Mozambican waters in the first six months of this year, "which is a bit too close for comfort for us", said Tilayi.

Read the full article on www.businessday.co.za.