Insurance Group Warns of Pirate Threats

November 15 - Pirates along the coast of Africa are proving to be a major headache for shipping companies and their insurance companies.

Container ships and private yachts are hot targets for these pirates, who are able to get huge ransoms paid out in return for delivering the safe return of cargo and crew.

As a result, many companies are re-routing their ships past the Cape of Good Hope - and pirates may soon be making South Africa their new area of activity.

Lion of Africa insurance warns that it is not only big container ships at risk from pirates.

According to the marine manager with the group, Heidi Miller, pirates will also target luxury yachts, as they know that they will be able to obtain a good ransom.

It was only recently that the supertanker, the Korean Samho Dream was released after a record ransom of $9 million was paid out to the pirates.

With that type of money being paid, there is nothing much stopping pirates from targeting ships, whether off the South African coastline or any coastline for that matter.

If ship owners refuse to pay the ransom, the pirates will often burn or destroy the contents, causing multi million losses - especially if there was not sufficient marine insurance in place.

Piracy has reached an all time high, with the majority of attacks carried out by Somali pirates.

In 2009, there were 450 incidents of piracy reported from around the world - half of them around the Somali coastline.