Although several people in the freight and trading sectors have plenty to say about Somali pirates, not many know that they have already hit the SA shores. But, said Andrew Thomas, CEO of Ocean Africa Container Line (OACL), the skull and crossbones has already been waved in front of SA shipowners. Indeed, one of the aggrieved parties has been Ivan Naik, SA MD of Pacific International Line (PIL) – which sails the SA route between Shanghai- Ningbo-Keelung-Hong Kong-Shekou-Singapore-Port Klang-Durban-Cape Town- Singapore-and Hong Kong. The Somali pirates hijacked one of the ships in PIL colours last October – but this time sailing on the line’s Far East-East Africa trade. “Although I don’t know the terms of the agreement between head office and the pirates,” said Naik, “the Kota Wajar was released at the end of December, and sailed to a safe port in East Africa.” OACL’s grievance with the Somali piracy scene was plain business trouble, according to Thomas. “It’s still a real issue, though,” he told FTW. “We are sailing the Mozambique waters, and with the pirates extending their activities further south all the time, it obviously concerns us.” It has also inhibited OACL extending its footprint further up the East African coastline. “We had plans to run services further north up the east coast, but the strong pirate presence has closed that area for us,” Thomas added. The other lines on the Far East-SA trade are keeping a keen eye on Somali piracy. “We are relatively safe,” said one line executive in SA. “We are well clear of the East African coast on our run from Singapore to Durban – about 1 500-kilometres to 2 000-kms. “But you can never take anything for granted, so we take every precaution we can.”
