http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/shipping-giant-battles-pirates/story-fn6s85 0w-1226052227556
Shipping giant battles pirates From: NewsCore May 09, 2011 5:36AM Pirate problems: A Kenyan police officer patrols near the Maersk Alabama. Pirates seized the ship in 2009, taking the crew hostage and sparking a battle with US Navy Seals. Picture: Sayyid Azim AP THE world's largest shipping company is stepping up efforts to battle piracy off the coast of Somalia. A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, says the problem is becoming ever bigger and increasingly costly. Maersk's container freight division has raised the emergency risk surcharge on each 12 metre container shipped through risky waters to $200-$500 from $100-$400 in a move to pass on some of the rising costs to its customers, the unit's head of daily operations, Erik Rabjerg Nielsen, said. The risk surcharge hike reflected on one hand a spike in the number of piracy-related incidents in the first quarter of 2011 and on the other, a massive increase in Maersk Line's cost burden related to piracy. The volume of Maersk Line's antipiracy-related costs was set to rise to an estimated $200 million this year, from $100 million in 2010, as its ships are forced to sail faster and longer to prevent hijackings, and its crews receive doubled salaries as compensation for the added work, Rabjerg Nielsen said. According to the latest global piracy report from the maritime watchdog, the International Maritime Bureau, worldwide pirate attacks in the first three months of 2011 reached the highest quarterly number ever at 142. The sharp rise was driven by a surge in piracy off the coast of Somalia, where 97 attacks were recorded in the first quarter of 2011, up from 35 in the same period last year. Worldwide, 18 vessels were hijacked, 344 crew members were taken hostage and six were kidnapped in the first quarter of 2011, the International Maritime Bureau recently reported. A further 45 vessels were boarded and 45 more reported being fired upon, it said. Maersk has now hired a former army major as anti-pirate chief, a first of his kind, who was to help develop a more firm strategy and lobby lawmakers and shipping peers for a tougher international stance on piracy. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
