Pirates targeting booming Asian demand for South African coal

Foreign navies have been deployed off the Gulf of Aden since the start of 2009 and have operated convoys, as well as set up a transit corridor across dangerous waters.

But their forces have been stretched over the vast expanses of water including the Indian Ocean, leaving merchant vessels vulnerable.

Pirates typically use mother ships to sail hundreds of miles to sea and then attack in small skiffs, turning the Indian Ocean into a major risk.

“It is a massive area and there are just not the warships to patrol it,” said Peter Hinchliffe, marine director with the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which represents 75 percent of the global shipping industry.

Hinchliffe said it was vital to ensure the “free and unhindered passage of world trade by sea”, urging the targeting of mother ships.

“We are seeing governments effectively not doing much more than putting a sticking plaster over the problem,” he said.

With Somali pirates increasingly firing rocket propelled grenades to force vessels to stop, coal ships face other perils.

John Dalby, chief executive of MRM, which provides armed and unarmed personnel to merchant vessels in the region, said coal was as dangerous to transport as petroleum cargoes.

Coal gives off toxic gases in a sealed cargo hold which would ignite and explode if a ship was fired upon. “Crews should consider themselves to be on a similar level of risk as on a tanker,” Dalby said.

Some of India's biggest coal traders said they doubted much could be done to combat piracy.

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