Asia Pacific Cargo Theft Down Says Freight Security Group

ASIA PACIFIC– Supply chain security provider FreightWatch International has released its semi-annual report on cargo theft in the Asia Pacific region for the first half of 2014, which found a total of 53 truck theft incidents were recorded for the area for the year so far, a decrease from the 115 recorded incidents from the same period in 2013. FreightWatch attribute this drop to irregular reporting rather than a sign of improving conditions and standards of freight security.

Of the countries reporting thefts, only Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam experienced an increase from 2013 to 2014. The overall 54% drop can largely be attributed to irregular reporting in Hong Kong (which has yet to release its 2014 report) and Bangladesh. FreightWatch says that the Asia Pacific region continues to experience inconsistent and irregular incident reporting, which results in artificially low numbers of reported incidents. However available data indicates a continued trend of facility burglaries and hijackings in India, Malaysia, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Meanwhile China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Singapore have more commonly reported incidents of fraudulent activities.

The overall loss value reported for the first half of 2014 was US$12.66 million. This is substantially lower than the region’s US$22.79 million loss value in the first half of 2013. The region saw an increase in the value of the individual cargoes reported stolen, with freight thefts worth more than US$100,000 up 34% from the previous year. The overall average loss value decreased from US$345,417 in the first half of 2013, to US$287,911 this year, a 17% difference.

This year so far, thieves most often stole building/industrial products, followed by products in the food/drinks, electronics, miscellaneous, and metal sectors. Comparably, in the same period last year, clothing/footwear and electronics were the two most frequently targeted product types in the Asia Pacific region. These were followed by metals, miscellaneous, and food/drinks product types.

Reported Hijackings dropped drastically from the first half of 2013, contributing to the overall decrease in the theft rate for the Asia-Pacific region. The substantial number of Hijackings reported last year came largely from an end-of-2013 report out of Bangladesh, while this year’s drop in incidents can be attributed to the lack of such a report to date.

The trend of reported incidents has seen a slight shift as collusion and intrusion became the two most commonly reported modus operandi in the first half of 2014 at 36% and 34% of reported incidents. This change is largely attributed to the sharp drop in reported hijacking incidents in 2014, an incident type in which violence is commonly involved.