No, not intellectual property piracy where you download a crack for Far Cry 2 or something. Real piracy, where outlaws with guns and RPGs and what have you run down a ship and seize it.

Reuters is reporting that with an increase in attacks by Somali pirates, international shippers are considering bypassing the Suez canal and the Mediterranean Sea altogether and sailing around the south end of Africa. That adds about three weeks for the average shipment of, say, consumer electronics from Asia.

Well, that’s what the article says, anyway, using the Wii as an example of a delayed good in the headline. But wouldn’t most stuff manufactured in Asia come to North America via the Pacific?

Europe would be more affected, I suppose. I’m just thinking out loud here. An expert on international trade routes I am not.

Somali piracy has been grabbing headlines. Yesterday, the British government announcing yesterday that it had shot two suspected pirates apparently involved in a hijacking attempt of a Danish cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates also seized a ship carrying arms in September, and that crew is still being held while a ransom of $35 million is demanded. (Ransom is the name of the game for modern piracy. What’s a pirate going to do with a hundred thousand copies of Dead Space, after all?)

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