Transporting ocean freight is going to become a much more dangerous business in the years ahead. If you look at the increasing number of attacks by pirates upon vessels on an increasing number of bodies of water in the past few years, the trend can be seen in the numbers.
Ships are expensive pieces of equipment that are usually insured to the hilt. Even a smaller vessel represents a significant investment of resources. For thieves interested in making the greatest profit for the least effort, the opportunity to take over a ship and its cargo and ransoming them or selling them to the highest bidder, is a tempting and often convenient sin.
Just a few years ago attacks by pirates were mainly on the South China Sea and along the coastlines of Indonesia. In the past few years pirates have heard the call of ‘go west young pirate, go west’, as pirates have started to carry out their business in more westerly locations.
Removing the threat of piracy is going to be a difficult task because of the economic situation in the areas of the world in which piracy exists. The reason these individuals are relying on piracy in the first place is because it’s often one of the few jobs that has a high return for little effort that’s available in the geographical regions in which the individuals live. Until we address the economic situation of the regions in which piracy exists, we’re unlikely to have much of an affect on the levels of piracy in these regions.
The growth of pirate regions like Somalia is going to increase in certain regions of the world in the years ahead, unless we can address the economic situation of the regions and provide other opportunities that are less dangerous than piracy for those who probably feel they have no choice.
We could go the military route, but this would at best be a short-lived solution, as new pirate groups would surely emerge to take the place of those eliminated. There’s a new generation of pirates being born in these regions every week. The only real solution would be to enhance the economic opportunities for individuals in the regions of the world where piracy exists.
Tags: freight forwarder, international shipping, ocean freight