Manufacturers and logistics service providers should brace for a projected significant spike in cargo thefts as coronavirus lockdowns begin to be lifted across the Europe, Middle East and Africa (Emea) region, the Transported Asset Protection Association (Tapa) has warned.
While entire national populations have been advised to stay at home to stop the spread of Covid-19 since the beginning of March, cargo thieves have clearly found it much more challenging to target goods in warehouses or onboard trucks. Tapa’s Incident Information Service (IIS) however still received reports of over 400 thefts of products from supply chains from 1 March-29 May, valued at more than €16.4 million.
These crimes took place in 37 countries across the Emea region, with the average value of major cargo crimes of €100 000 or above exceeding €840 000.
In April alone, the Association – a security network for everyone in the supply chain – recorded a series of seven-figure losses, including thefts of two million face masks in Spain, sports equipment in the United Kingdom, and mobile phones in Kenya.
The 2020 figures, though, show a significant drop over Tapa’s IIS statistics for the same period of 2019.
Then, over the course of the corresponding 90 days, the Association’s incident database was notified of over 2 500 cargo thefts with a total value in excess of €33 million.
“Cargo thieves see disruptions to supply chains as windows of opportunity,” says
“The emerging risk for businesses is due to the distortion of their supply chains; blanked sailings, ships not calling at all ports and shifts from scheduled to charter freighter flights, for example.
The result is that many shipments are moving along unfamiliar routes and through different hubs and cross-docks where risks might not be fully known or assessed, and transit times are longer.”
