According to the latest BSI & TT Club Cargo Theft Report 2021, in the Asian region, India, Indonesia, China, and Bangladesh were the top countries for cargo theft incidents. Cargo thieves in Asian countries operate relatively similarly, capitalizing on poor access controls at facilities.
A significant portion of incidents in China involved thieves stealing goods directly from facilities, a trend demonstrative of a historically low level of access controls exacerbated by an added vulnerability caused by the backlog of goods in warehouses and facilities as a result of limited movement allowed by COVID-19.
Thefts from warehouses and facilities accounted for the majority of thefts in Indonesia, India, and Bangladesh; although thefts from trucks occurred regularly.
BSI and TT Club continued to record the highest number of thefts in food and beverage products in Asia. Electronics and construction materials ranked second and third, respectively.
Supply chain corruption is a major element of theft in Asia, with corrupt employees removing goods they are transporting or accessing shipments stored in warehouses or logistics facilities.
Thieves in these instances generally pilfer small numbers of items but occasionally manage to steal larger quantities of goods. These trends play out in the median value of thefts recorded by BSI and TT Club in the region, which tends to remain much lower than other regions where thieves often steal entire truckloads of high-value goods.
The most commonly targeted locations in China are warehouses and production facilities; however, organized gangs rarely systematically target warehouses for theft. On most occasions, employees or outside groups collude with corrupt employees, such as warehouse inspectors and other employees seeking financial gains, in order to steal goods from warehouses.
Because many theft incidents involve corrupt employees, BSI recommends regularly auditing cargo storage companies in China for stringent employee controls and necessary protective physical security measures.