Three Singapore Strait robberies lift reported total to 28

Three commercial vessels were boarded in the Singapore Strait within nine days, bringing the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre’s reported total for the year to 28. The latest cluster followed a relative lull through the first 10 months and involved bulk carriers and a tanker on the same eastbound route.

All three attacks occurred in Indonesian waters, at locations within 3.2 nautical miles of one another, and each took place during hours of darkness. That concentration matters operationally: crews transiting the same lane faced three incidents in a short period, although ReCAAP did not identify carriers, cargoes, loading ports or discharge ports.

When did the three boardings occur?

ReCAAP provided a precise sequence for the attacks. The listed times show that the incidents unfolded over nine days across bulk-carrier and tanker traffic:

• Star Calypso, a bulk carrier, was boarded on November 2 at 21:25.
• APJ Priti 2, another bulker, was boarded on November 4 at 23:35.
• Salsa, a tanker, was boarded on November 10 at 02:32.

ReCAAP said: “A crew member sustained injuries in one of the incidents, while no injuries were reported in the other two cases.” The alert did not identify which boarding caused the injury or describe its severity.

The property-loss pattern was equally specific. Thieves took engine spares in two cases and took nothing in the remaining incident; ReCAAP described engine spares as a common target in Singapore Strait sea robberies.

What does this mean commercially?

For shippers, ReCAAP’s account records no stolen cargo in the three incidents. The documented property loss was confined to engine spares in two cases, so the immediate commercial exposure centers on crew safety and vessel readiness rather than missing freight.

For carriers and ship managers, the combination of two equipment thefts and one injury raises the practical need to verify engine-spares inventories and strengthen night-watch procedures. These are reasonable responses to the alert, not reported outcomes: ReCAAP did not announce hijackings, vessel diversions, delays or freight-rate changes.

For forwarders, the absence of a disclosed cargo, schedule or rate effect keeps this a route-security development rather than a confirmed freight-market disruption. Any routing review should focus on eastbound passages through the affected Indonesian waters while also tracking the broader warning for the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS).

Why does ReCAAP expect the risk to persist?

ReCAAP said the three latest robberies brought the year’s total to 28, all in the Singapore Strait according to its location map. The centre warned that further incidents could occur in both the Straits of Malacca and Singapore and said: “The ReCAAP ISC is deeply concerned about the increasing frequency of incidents within the SOMS.”

That warning came with a four-part request to littoral states: increase patrols and surveillance in their respective waters, respond promptly to ship-reported incidents, strengthen coordination, and share information on incidents and criminal groups involved so authorities can arrest perpetrators. The request targets both prevention and enforcement rather than relying on ships to absorb the risk through isolated defensive measures.

The incident trend has been volatile. SOMS boardings surged in the first half of 2025, with 79 reported incidents in the first six months and another 11 in the first week of July; a series of arrests by the Indonesian Marine Police then accompanied a sharp drop from mid-July 2025.

The relative lull through the first 10 months therefore did not end the broader threat, and the three latest incidents reset the reported count to 28. ReCAAP’s closing section described the latest sequence as a spike in boardings in November 2026.

The centre advised ships to “intensify vigilance and maintain sharp lookout while transiting the areas of concern, particularly during hours of darkness” and to report incidents promptly to both coastal and flag states. The next test of containment will be whether patrols, surveillance and information sharing reduce repeat boardings in the same 3.2-nautical-mile corridor; until ReCAAP’s requested measures show a sustained effect, night-time security risk should remain concentrated on the eastbound Singapore Strait route.