IMB 2025 Report: Piracy Increased by 18%

Palaemon Maritime
1 day ago
4 min read

The IMB 2025 Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships report reveals piracy incidents have reached their highest level since they started reporting, and sheds light on concerning trends in maritime crime. Full report can be accessed here.

IMB Piracy Report of 2025 shows 137 incidents occurred, 91% of which were successful boardings

A Surge in Piracy Incidents

On January 15th, the ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) released the 2025 edition of their yearly report of Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships.

The report shows that piracy has increased to an all time high since their earliest reports in 2021. In the past year, 137 piracy incidents were recorded which is more than an 18% increase from 2024.

Monthly data show that pirates were most active in the months from March to June, accounting for almost half of all piracy incidents in 2025.

*Global piracy incidents reached a record high of 137 in 2025, up 18% from 2024 (Data from ICC IMB)*

Regional clusters: Southeast Asia & Africa

The vast majority of all incidents occurred in Southeast Asia, with 95 incidents registered (69.3%). Africa had the second most, with 29 incidents (21.2%), while the Indian subcontinent and the Americas had 8 (5.8%) and 5 (3.6%) respectively.

*South East Asia experienced the vast majority of piracy incidents (Data from ICC IMB)*

Compared to previous reporting periods, incidents in the Singapore Strait have almost doubled since last year, whilst the Gulf of Guinea has had a small increase and seems to be stabilizing due to increased military efforts. Incidents in East Africa, particularly Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, show a slight decrease compared to last year, though numbers remain higher than in 2023.

High Success Rates & Elevated Risk at Sea

Almost every recorded incident was successful, with pirates having a 91% success rate. Out of these successful piracy incidents, 97% were boardings, and the remainder were hijackings.

Vessels seemed to be most at risk whilst steaming (74%), or anchored (22%), with berthed vessels accounting for the remaining 3%. Crucially, most violent incidents involving hijackings and/or shootings affected vessels steaming in African waters, with Somalia accounting for 75% and São Tomé & Príncipe 25%.

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Regional Patterns in Piracy Severity Levels

This pattern is reflected in the severity level ratios per region. Africa had the highest proportion of Level 1 incidents (which include hijacking, hostage taking, killing, kidnapping) which made up more than half (51.72%) of all the incidents reported in the region. Meanwhile, Southeast Asia, the Indian sub-continent, and the Americas mostly reported Level 3 incidents (non-violent), accounting for at least 60% of all recorded piracy incidents.

The Most Dangerous Ports/Anchorages

The most dangerous ports/anchorages of 2025, in terms of recorded piracy events, were:

Chattogram, Bangladesh (5 incidents)
Luanda, Angola (4 incidents)
Jakarta, Indonesia (4 incidents)
Belawan, Indonesia (3 incidents)
Lagos, Nigeria (3 incidents)

Worrying Patterns in Weapon Use

As highlighted by our previous articles, in 2025 the use of weapons in piracy attacks has become a concerning trend, reaching its highest level since 2021, with 79 incidents recorded (+50% of all piracy). Specifically, firearm use has steadily risen since 2023, peaking at 53.16% of all armed incidents in 2025. Simultaneously, the rate of knife use has declined consistently since 2022, reaching an all-time low of 41.77% in 2025.

These trends suggest that piracy gangs are elevating their capabilities from the use of knives to firearms, investing in more lethal means to strengthen their coercive capacity and increase the threat to seafarers.

*Firearm usage has steadily risen in recent years, surpassing knives in 2025, increasing risk to crew members (Data from ICC IMB)*

Distinct modus operandi are seen across geographic locations, with different patterns of weapon usage. Whilst Somalia and São Tomé & Príncipe rely solely on firearms, pirates in Bangladesh, Colombia, Indonesia, Angola and Mozambique use knives only. This pattern aligns with the type of piracy: hijackings and kidnappings almost always feature guns, whereas robberies generally carry edged blades.

Impact on Crew Safety

A correlation between weapon type and violence to crew members is also observed. Somalia and São Tomé & Príncipe featured exclusively high levels of violence (kidnappings and hostage taking), while relying exclusively on firearms. In contrast, Colombia, Angola and Mozambique, which used only knives, reported zero violence to crew members.

Although we saw an overall reduction in violence to crew members since last year, the proportion of kidnappings did increase, consistent with the rise in gun-usage. In 2025, more than half of all crew-related violent incidents involved hostage-taking and kidnapping, together accounting for 80.68%.

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Vessel Types At Risk

When analyzing the types of vessels targeted in piracy events, we see that the top 5 was comprised of:

Bulk carriers - 50 incidents (36.5%)
Container ships - 20 incidents (14.6%)
Product tankers - 19 incidents (13.87%)
tankers - 10 incidents (7.30%)
Tug - 9 incidents (6.57%)

*Bulk carriers were most attacked, along with product tankers and container ships. (Data from ICC IMB)*

When comparing the data from previous years, we identify an uptick in container ship attacks, which increased by 81.81% since 2024 and reached the highest level since 2022. Attacks on chemical/product tankers has also gone up by 60% compared to 2024. However, the highest increase in incidents involved crude oil tankers, which have been targeted 150% more than in 2024, reaching an all-time-high since 2021.