MSC and Sinotrans both had ships come under grenade fire in the Indian Ocean on Friday as pirates brought an end to a near week-long hiatus on attacks in the region.
The 13,800-teu MSC Kalina was the first to attract the attention of six pirates in one skiff south of Oman in the early morning, an informed source told TradeWinds.
Rocket-propelled grenades were used in the assault on the giant 2009-built unit a couple of hundred miles south of Salalah and north-east of the Yemeni island of Socotra.
The Panama-flagged boxship increased speed to 20 knots and took evasive manoeuvres before the pirates, how had launched from a nearby mothership, gave up the chase after 15 minutes.
The ship has a mixed crew of 23 from Italy, Bangladesh, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Indonesia and all are understood to be safe.
Although the ship is operated by Switzerland-based MSC its beneficial owner is unknown. Its nominal owner, Kalina Naviera of Panama, has a registered address as the boxshipping giant’s Geneva office.
Some two hours after the MSC Kalina attack five pirates in one skiff set upon Sinotrans Shipping’s 52,400-dwt Great Legend (built 2006) in about the same area.
Again RPGs and small weapons were fired at the Hong Kong-flagged supramax which managed to escape. It is highly likely that the same pirate action group was involved in both incidents.
Again the bulker has a crew of 23 with all understood to be Chinese and no reports of any injuries. The ship is owned by Beijing-based Sinotrans and operated out of Hong Kong by subsidiary Sinotrans Ship Management.
Both ships attacked on Friday are believed to have been registered with and reporting to the relevant naval authorities conducting counter-piracy operations in the region.
The assaults will lead to fears that Somali pirates are once again active in the Arabian Sea after a trouble-free week in the area. The incidents occured in an area not far from where a yacht and its four American crew were hijacked last Friday. The intervention of US Navy forces in that drama ended with the pirates shooting dead all four hostages with four pirates killed and 15 arrested.
