A Costly Last Quarter as 2023 Ends with €53 Million of Cargo Losses in 92 Days

Based on recorded cargo thefts published in Vigilant for Q4 2023, businesses saw losses of goods with a value of >€53 million in the 92 days of October, November, and December.

More incidents will have been reported to the TAPA EMEA Intelligence System (TIS) since these monthly e-magazine issues were published and, undoubtedly, most cargo crimes in the Europe, Middle East & Africa region will not have been notified to the Association. But, based on intelligence for those crimes in Vigilant over this period, supply chains in EMEA saw an average daily loss of goods of more than >€579,000 for the less than 30% of crimes sharing a value.

Recorded incidents in the TIS database in Q4 2023 included these headline numbers:

October – 670 incidents with losses of >€15,489,463
November – 589 incidents with a value of >€24,288,003
December – 454 incidents costing losses in excess of €13,506,258

Reports of criminal attacks on facilities and goods in transit are still being reported to TIS for 2023, so these figures are expected to climb even higher.

The latest monthly data for December was based on reports of cargo thefts in 35 countries. These produced an average daily loss of €435,685 for the month or an average of €112,552 for the 120 or 26.4% of crimes declaring a value. This included 32 major incidents targeting supply chains in the region, which produced an average loss of €370,216.

December crimes included:

€335,176 – the theft of a vehicle with no load from an Origin Facility in Aulum, Denmark, on 4 December.
€300,000 – a large shipment of toys/games stolen from an Origin Facility in Wissous, France, on 7 December.
€300,000 – a loss of a cargo of audio equipment after a trailer was stolen from another Origin Facility, this time in Val-de-Marne, France, on 7 December.
€200,000 – a large quantity of metal was part of this loss on 9 December from an Origin Facility in Pontelongo, Veneto, Italy.
€200,000 – the loss of agricultural materials from an Origin Facility in Essex, UK, on 28 December.
€134,049 – A trailer and its load of alcohol was taken from an unclassified parking location in Vaggeryd, Sweden, on the night of 11 December.
€100,000 – Auto parts (wheels) were stolen from a vehicle on 16 December from an Origin Facility in Benzfeld, Germany.
€100,000 – On 20 September, a shipment of consumer electronics was stolen from an Origin Facility in Vélizy-Villacoublay, north-central France.

France recorded 12 major cargo thefts of goods worth €100K or more in December, producing a total loss for these crimes of €3,067,000 or an average of €255,583. Six more major crimes were reported in Germany (total = €2,172,000 & average = €362,000), while Italy was the only other country to see multiple high-value thefts, five in total worth €4,400,000 or an average of €880,000.

Cargo thefts involving individual losses of €100,000 or more were also recorded by TIS in the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, and Spain in December.

TAPA EMEA also collated a further 16 cargo crimes during the month with losses of goods worth between €50K-€100K, which produced a total loss of €1,156,060. Examples of these incidents included:

€95,000 – the theft of a trailer and a shipment of metal from a secured parking location in Hannover, Germany.
€90,000 – a loss of miscellaneous products from a truck on-route to Leipzig, Germany.
€90,000 – cars stolen from a container in Essex, UK.
€53,760 – the forced stop and hijacking of a truck on the N3 between Johannesburg and Durban and theft of a cargo of soft drinks.
€50,000 – a truck loaded with cheese that was stolen from an unclassified parking at a service station in Strensham, Worcestershire, UK.
€50,000 – another theft of metal, this time from an Origin Facility in Cavriglia in Tuscany, Italy.

Seven of the 18 TIS product categories recording cargo thefts in the month saw double-digit losses:

Fuel Theft – 90 incidents or 19.82% of the December total
Cash – 27 incidents, 5.95%
Metal – 26, 5.73%
Miscellaneous Electronics – 22 or 4.85%
Tools/Building Materials – 15 or 3.30%
Food & Drink – 13 or 2.86%
No Load (Theft of truck and/or trailer) – 13 or 2.86%

Fuel thefts, even small quantities of diesel, continued to be a consistent cause of disruption to roadfreight operations.

Six-month analysis of TIS data shows 650 cases of fuel theft recorded in the EMEA region, mostly in Europe, but this is still likely to represent only a relatively low percentage of the total number of fuel losses being suffered by road transport companies. TIS data shows fuel was stolen from trucks in 19 countries in Europe in the last six months, with fuel thieves consistently most active in Germany, which accounted for 427 or >65% of incidents notified to TAPA EMEA in the last half-year. This compares to 55 fuel crimes in France, the second highest country for recorded fuel thefts in the TIS database during this period.

While these crimes are being seen across virtually all states in Germany, fuel thieves appear to be most active in North Rhine-Westphalia (52 reported incidents in 6 months), Baden-Württemberg (47), Lower Saxony (39), Thuringia (37), and Rhineland-Palatinate (33).

This is also one of the main contributing factors to Germany’s position as the European country with the highest number of cargo crimes reported to TAPA EMEA in the last six months of 2023, 1,220 in total. Outside of the high-profile €100m metal inventory fraud in Germany last year, TIS recorded a further 408 losses from supply chains across the country with a combined value of €26,205,966 or an average of €64,230.

Major crimes in Germany from July-December – excluding the €100m loss referenced – produced an average value of €552,426.

Other than fuel, products regularly targeted by cargo thieves in Germany in this period included:

Metal – 94 incidents
Tools/Building Materials – 46
Cash – 33
No Load (Theft of truck and/or trailer) – 28
Auto Parts – 19
Foods & Drink – 14

In 395 of the crimes reported in Germany in H2/2023, no regional location was identified. For other crimes, 11 states recorded double digit rates of cargo thefts:

North Rhine-Westphalia – 239
Baden-Württemberg – 98
Hesse – 78
Thuringia – 69
Rhineland-Palatinate – 59
Bavaria – 36
Schleswig-Holstein – 21
Saxony – 18
Brandenburg 12
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania – 12
Saxony-Anhalt – 10

Germany’s position at the top of Europe’s cargo crime table in H2/2023, however, is also driven by higher incident reporting levels than in other European countries, which are likely to suffer very similar, if not greater, rates of incidents and losses.

TAPA EMEA members can find more intelligence and analysis by logging into the TIS database.