Singapore: A study made by European insurance giant Allianz on worldwide maritime losses shows that once again Southeast Asia is a black spot for shipping.

Shipping losses continued their downward trend with 94 losses reported worldwide in 2013, coming in below 100 for only the second time in 12 years, Allianz said.

According to the report, more than a third of 2013’s total losses were concentrated in two maritime regions. As in 2012, the South China, Indo China, Indonesia and the Philippines regions saw the highest number of losses (18 ships), closely followed by the seas around Japan, Korea and North China (17 ships).

“We have to ask how some Asian ship operators measure safety and quality, particularly when speaking about domestic trade shipping in South East Asia,” said Captain Jarek Klimczak, Senior Marine Risk Consultant at Allianz. “The understanding of quality and standards can sometimes appear 50 years behind Europe – maybe even more.”

Southeast Asia also featured prominently in Allianz’s tally of piracy attacks for last year.

In 2013, piracy attacks declined 11% to 264 reported incidents worldwide according to International Maritime Bureau statistics - 106 of these occurred in Indonesia, which has seen a 700% increase in attacks since 2009, Allianz noted.

“Most of these attacks remain low level opportunistic thefts carried out by small bands of individuals but one third of incidents in these waters were reported in the last quarter of 2013, and there is potential for such attacks to escalate into a more organized piracy model unless they are controlled,” Allianz noted in a release.

Published by Seashipnews.com