Somali Pirates Cost $6.9 Billion

Somali pirates cost the shipping industry and governments as much as $6.9 billion last year as average ransom payments advanced 25 percent, according to One Earth Future Foundation.

Somali Pirates Cost $6.9 Billion as Attacks Reach Record

By Michelle Wiese Bockmann

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) — Somali pirates cost the shipping industry and governments as much as $6.9 billion last year as average ransom payments advanced 25 percent, according to One Earth Future Foundation.

Ships are spending an extra $2.7 billion on fuel to speed up through the area because no vessel has been captured while traveling at 18 knots or faster, the Colorado-based non-profit group said in a report today. Governments spent $1.27 billion on military operations, including warship patrols, and ship owners another $1.16 billion on armed guards and security equipment.

Attacks in the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and off of Somalia, an area larger than Europe, jumped fivefold in the past five years to a record…….[access full article]