…As Nine Trades See Drop in November Schedule Reliability***
Six Somali nationals, who were apprehended in late November, have been charged with ‘committing an act of piracy’ and ‘attempting an act of piracy’ in the Indian Ocean.
The men were detained by the crew of EU NAVFOR’s flagship ITS Virginio Fasan following attacks on a 52,000 tonne containership MV Ever Dynamic and a fishing vessel Galerna III, which took place on November 17 and 18 in the Southern Somali Basin.
During the incidents, it was alleged that a number of rocket propelled grenades were fired against the container ship. The six Somalis formed the crew of a motor whaler, supposedly acting as mother ship.
EU NAVFOR informed, citing the Seychellois Attorney General, that the men will now face legal prosecution before the court and if convicted, the suspected pirates could face up to 30 years’ imprisonment in a Seychelles detention facility.
This case follows other piracy convictions such as the Tribal Kat case in 2016, when a French court sentenced six Somalis to between 6 and 15 years after they were found guilty of attacking the yacht and the murder of its French skipper, in an incident which took place back in September 2011.
Meanwhile, nine of the 12 trades saw a decrease in schedule reliability from October 2017 to November 2017, intelligence provider CargoSmart informed.
The North America-Oceania trade, which had the highest reliability in previous months, experienced the largest decrement in reliability, decreasing by 24.8% from 86.2% in October 2017 to 61.4% in November 2017.
The Europe-Middle East trade experienced the largest improvement in reliability, increasing by 9.8%, from 63.3% in October 2017 to 73.1% in November 2017.
The Europe-South America trade had the highest reliability with 83.8% in November 2017.
Carriers’ overall on-time schedule reliability decreased by 0.6%, from 67.6% in October 2017 to 67% in November 2017. The top five most reliable carriers in November 2017 were CCNI, Safmarine, OOCL, Evergreen, and COSCO with an average on-time performance of 77.8%, 75.4%, 74.3%, 73.9%, and 73.5% respectively.
World Maritime News
