Stora Enso has EUR 1.3 million worth of timber in missing ship Arctic Sea

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The Arctic Sea, a ship which is claimed to have been hijacked briefly more than two weeks ago, and which has now gone missing, is carrying a cargo of more than EUR 1.3 million worth of sawn timber from Stora Enso.
      The Finnish forest industry company has no knowledge of where the ship might be, after it failed to reach its destination in Algeria.
      “The shipping line has not told us anything”, says Stora Enso’s Kari Numminen, who is in charge of exports of sawn goods to Algeria.
     
The hijacking is claimed to have taken place off the coast of Sweden on July 24th. The most recent confirmed sightings of the Maltese-registered vessel are from July 29th, when it was in the English Channel.
      Stora Enso has not received any information on the fate of its shipment from Victor Matvejev, CEO of the shipping line Solchart Management.
      “Previously this shipping line has always taken care of things. Now there is absolutely no information at all. Naturally, wild theories emerge in such a situation”, Naumanen says.
      The location of the ship is also a mystery to the Algerian port of Beijaia, and to the Swedish police who are investigating the 12-hour hijacking of July 24th.
     
Owners of the ship and companies involved in managing its operations were not giving out any details on Sunday, when it was also reported that the Finnish and Russian authorities are looking into the disappearance of the Arctic Sea, which has an all-Russian crew.
      From the Russian side the search involves at least the domestic security service FSB and the Russian Navy. The Finnish company RETS Timber, which handles timber products sales to North Africa and Middle East countries on behalf of Stora Enso, is expected to file an official request with police today, Monday, for advice on how to proceed.
      According to a report on the website of the Russian Sovracht Maritime Bulletin the vessel vanished off the Portuguese coast, and no contact with the crew has been had for nearly two weeks.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Swedish police silent on ship hijacking investigation (4.8.2009)
  Press report: Swedish police see ship hijacking as “mistake” (3.8.2009)
  Freight vessel of Finnish shipping line targeted by mystery pirates in Swedish waters (31.7.2009)
  Location of "hijacked" Arctic Sea freighter a mystery (7.8.2009)

Links:
  Sovfracht Maritime Bulletin: M/V Arctic Sea

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