264 Attacks in 12 Countries Produce € 1.1 m Loss in June

Awareness generated of the TAPA EMEA Intelligence System (TIS) at the Association’s Regional Conference in Johannesburg in March has helped to generate more reporting of incidents across South Africa’s provinces in the last month. Consequently, South Africa displaced Germany as the country in EMEA with the highest rate of recorded cargo crimes month-over-month with 107 incidents in the 30 days of June. 

The aggressive nature of criminal activities in South Africa also accelerated the number of violent attacks on supply chains last month to 100 incidents, 37.8% of all freight theft reports during the month. 99 of the violent attacks in June took place in South Africa. 

TAPA EMEA members can see intelligence on all these incidents in South Africa by accessing the TIS database via their MyTAPA logins. 

After a surge in cargo thefts reported to TIS in May – 936 incidents in 33 countries with a combined loss value of >€12 million – June was a quieter month with 264 cargo crimes across only 12 countries. In addition to South Africa, five other countries recorded double-digit losses from supply chains:

• Germany – 60 incidents or 22.7% of the monthly total
• France – 38 or 14.3%
• United Kingdom – 22 or 8.3%
• Italy – 13 or 4.9% 
• Spain – 12 or 4.5%

Only 22.7% of incidents recorded in June provided a loss value and this included only two major crimes involving products worth €100K or more:

€201,000

On 5 June in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, thieves stole 14,300 miscellaneous goods from a trailer parked at an Origin Facility.

€100,000

Also in Germany, on 27 June, a cargo of solar power storage systems was stolen from a facility in Sollwitt, Schleswig-Holstein. 

These contributed to a total loss for the month from crimes sharing a value of €1,167,510 or an average loss for the 60 losses with financial reporting data of €19,458 or a daily average loss value of €38,917.     

Six types of incidents recorded double-digit crime rates:

• Robbery – 78 incidents or 29.5% 
• Theft from Trailer – 65 or 24.6%
• Theft from Vehicle – 38 or 14.3%
• Theft from Facility – 34 or 12.8%
• Hijacking – 24 or 9%
• Theft – 14 or 5.3%

 June saw 85 or 32.2% of recorded cargo crimes take place in Origin Facility locations, although the monthly intelligence reports also highlighted a significant number of product thefts from retail store facilities in South Africa, contributing to the high robbery rate for the month. The 12 TIS product categories recording losses were headed by the 54 thefts of phones and the 53 incidents targeting fuel, which accounted for over 40% of the known products stolen from end-to-end supply chains in the month.

Fuel thefts continued to present a major disruption to road transport operations in Europe, with losses reported to TAPA EMEA in six countries. Most incidents – 43 in total – occurred in France and Germany.