Doing Business in China

Somali pirates seized a chinese cargoship with 25 crew shows pirates are expanding their reach

The De Xin Hai, carrying about 76,000 tonnes of coal from South Africa to the port of Mundra, in Gujarat, India, was hijacked about 700 nautical miles off the east coast of Somalia on Monday, the European Union's counter-piracy force said.

The ship could be brought to Haradheere, a pirate stronghold, or Hobyo, both in the central portion of Somalia's Indian Ocean coastline, pirates told Reuters.

"This shows that the pirates are expanding their operations," said an official at the China Shipowners' Association in Beijing. It was the first reported attack on a Chinese merchant ship in the Indian Ocean, he said.

"The Indian Ocean is very big, and too hard to defend. The Gulf of Aden is a more limited area."

The Chinese "probably would use a more cautious approach," Middleton said. But, he added: "We've never seen so many Chinese citizens captured at a time when Chinese ships were in the region."

A previous attack on a Chinese vessel last year was repelled when the crew used homemade Molotov cocktails to fight off their attackers.

Somali pirates have recently ramped up attacks after a period of quiet during poor weather. They use sophisticated equipment and so-called larger "mother ships" to enable them to strike hundreds of miles offshore. The multimillion-dollar ransoms they share are a fortune in their impoverished and war-ravaged country.

A total of 146 people, including the crew of the De Xin Hai, are currently being held hostage by pirates.