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Hamburg, July 11, 2009 - Pirate attacks off Somalia have exacted a heavy
financial toll from German shipping companies and some are now arming
their freighters, according to a survey Thursday by
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). German firms have paid huge ransoms to
free ships and a Hamburg-owned vessel, the Hansa Stavanger, is currently
in pirate hands.
"One fifth of the companies have had direct experience of piracy," said
Claus Brandt, an executive for the audit firm, in Hamburg.
The survey of 101 firms operating 3,500 vessels found many now preferred
the longer, more expensive route around southern Africa, were employing
guards and were paying up to 30 per cent more in insurance premiums to
pass through the Red Sea.
Yet 62 per cent said it was impossible in the recession to pass the
extra costs of avoiding the north-west Indian Ocean on to customers.
"The counter-measures range from chartering gunboats and ringing the
ships with razor wire to hiring Russian mercenaries as guards," said
Brandt.
The companies, many of which use flags of convenience and foreign crews,
employ 76,000 people. He said about 80 per cent of German shipping firms
took part in the PwC survey.
Source: DPA, July 09, 2009
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