Shipowners have been advised to be extra vigilant during calls at northern Chinese ports over the winter months due to a regular spike in thefts.
“Members are advised that the winter months of December, January and February are the high season for thieves to approach merchant ships anchored outside Tianjin port,” said the Standard P&I Club in an alert.
“The thieves typically steal bunkers, ship stores, spare parts, and other property. Similar reports of thieving during these months have been received from the port of Dalian as well.”
The Standard Club said the thieves tend to disguise their small boats as fishing boats which will not attract attention from merchant ships.
“High waves interfering with radar signals and fewer crew members engaged in safety patrols during frozen nights may also be contributing factors to the higher occurrence of theft in winter,” it added.
“The club’s correspondents at Tianjin, Huatai Insurance Agency & Consultant Service, received four reports of theft from ships last winter. None of the thieves have been captured so far.”
The Standard Club said that in the past, Chinese ships were the usual targets. However, foreign ships now appear to have become the focus of theft.
“Vessels dropping anchor outside Tianjin port are recommended to implement additional security measures,” the P&I club added.
Early last year a capesize bulker suffered a theft off a sizeable quantity of its bunkers, according to the Singapore-based Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) Information Sharing Centre.
The incident involving the then 176,346-dwt Nord Power (built 2005) took place on the afternoon of 1 January 2016 at Tianjin outer anchorage.
Subsequent tank sounding and quantity checking found that about 39 metric tons of low sulphur MGO was stolen from the storage tank.
