Maersk raises the risk premium

Neil Chen, Head of Ship Operations at Maersk Shipping, confirmed by email at the headquarters in Copenhagen yesterday that it had raised the Emergency Risk Surcharge (ERS) on April 1st, at US$100 per cabinet, to make up for the additional Somali pirates’ excesses. expenditure. In order to integrate various routes, the company originally imposed a surcharge of US$100 to US$400 per cabinet for containers passing through high-risk waters, and the levy level increased to US$200 to US$500 on April 1.

Neilson discussed the issue of piracy in the shipping industry, especially the operation of ships. He said that the cost of preventing pirate attacks has already doubled in just one year, from 100 million U.S. dollars last year to 200 million U.S. dollars this year.

He explained that in order to avoid piracy, airline companies generally use longer-range routes, increase range distance and length to avoid pirate-infested areas or sea areas. As a result, fuel costs have increased significantly.

According to a report issued by the International Maritime Bureau from Kuala Lumpur in mid-April, pirate attack cases hit 142 cases in the first quarter of this year, and Somali pirates accounted for 97 cases, which was 1.77 times the same period last year.

“You can say that the cost of the entire transportation chain is increasing.” “Some ship owners have stopped operating routes in certain parts of East Africa because they are no longer safe. If such attacks continue to escalate, some customers have to re-examine the transportation in those places. In the high-risk situation, more shipowners will stop using ports in the area, which may force the entire industry to avoid the sea area and replace it with South African waters."

Increase in cost of detour costs According to Nielsen, if the vessel cancels the Cape of Good Hope route from the Middle East Suez Canal bypass, the time and cost of the Indian Ocean-Mediterranean route will increase. From Singapore to Spain, the Suez Canal will take only 17 days to complete the voyage. However, via the Cape of Good Hope route in South Africa, the entire cycle will take 27 days, an increase of 60%.

“In Europe, the increase in the cost of consumer goods has been significantly affected, mainly from East Africa,” he said. “These countries do not have much competitive products to export now, and import costs are getting bigger.”

In the first quarter of this year, about 18 cargo ships were hijacked, and the number of seafarers detained rose to 344. Another 45 ships were boarded by pirates and fierce gun battles occurred.

"The most important thing is the safety of the seafarers, and to study what measures have not been done enough," Nelson said. The total number of people held as hostages is currently 500. He described this as if two commercial aircraft were hijacked at Heathrow and Frankfurt Airport. If so, this would be a completely different story.