Seatrade Maritime: Have Indonesian arrests stopped Singapore Strait ship robberies?

There have been no reported boardings of vessels in the Singapore Strait in the last two weeks.

The lull coincides with the Riau Islands Regional Police Water Police apprehending a gang of pirates on 9 July that had tried to board a tanker in the Philip’s Channel. The police apprehended eight suspects vessels trying to board the vessel and a further three on land.

Ship robberies in the Singapore Strait are at over a decade high with 79 incidents reported in the first half of 2025 according to the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre (ISC), and further 11 incidents in the first week of July alone.

The apprehension of the suspected gang by the Indonesian police came after a long period without any groups being arrested or prosecuted for attacking ships in the Strait. Arrests and successful prosecution of pirate gangs by the Indonesian authorities are usually associated with a drop off in armed robbery incidents against ships in the busy shipping lane.

However, at the time of the latest arrests the Indonesian police said that more gangs remained active in the Riau islands bordering the eastbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) in the Singapore Strait.

Risk Intelligence analyst Thomas Timlen commented on LinkedIn that, “with two other gangs reportedly remaining at large, vigilance remains important”.

Related:Indonesian police arrest Singapore Strait pirate group

While no boardings have been reported this does not necessarily mean that no incidents have taken place since 9 July as under-reporting is believed to be widespread with some owners and managers wary of delays that might result from reporting an incident. That being said an industry source indicated though that even some sanctioned dark fleet vessels, which might be expected to want to avoid contact with the authorities, have reported incidents in recent months.

Boardings are centred in Indonesian waters in the eastbound lane of the TSS in the region of Philips Channel where vessels have to slow down to make a turn,

ReCAAP characterises the robberies as “hit and run” and “opportunistic” and encourages ships and crew transiting the region to be vigilant to a help avoid attack.