By Fergus Jensen and Kanupriya Kapoor

JAKARTA, April 21 (Reuters) – Indonesia fears piracy on a delivery route alongside its sea border with the Philippines may attain Somalian ranges and has informed vessels to keep away from hazard areas, officers mentioned on Thursday, after a spate of kidnappings.

Analysts say the route carries $40 billion value of cargo annually. It is taken by totally laden supertankers from the Indian Ocean that can’t use the crowded Malacca Strait.

Concerns over maritime assaults by suspected Islamist militants are disrupting the coal commerce, with a minimum of two Indonesian coal ports suspending shipments to the Philippines.

Up to 18 Indonesians and Malaysians have been kidnapped in three assaults on tugboats in Philippine waters by teams suspected of ties to the Abu Sayyaf militant community.

Abu Sayyaf, which has posted movies on social media pledging allegiance to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, has demanded 50 million pesos ($1.1 million) to free the Indonesian crew.

“We don’t want to see this become a new Somalia,” Indonesian chief safety minister Luhut Pandjaitan informed reporters, referring to the southern Philippine waters of the Sulu Sea, the place the abductions befell.

Piracy close to Somalia’s coast has subsided in the previous couple of years, primarily because of delivery corporations hiring personal safety particulars and the presence of worldwide warships.

The overseas ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines will meet in Jakarta to debate the potential for joint patrols, Pandjaitan mentioned.

He mentioned the armed forces chiefs of the three international locations would maintain talks in Jakarta on May 3.

The Indonesian Navy has instructed all business vessels “to avoid piracy-prone waters around the southern Philippines,” a spokesman for the Indonesian army mentioned.

The navy is growing patrols round Indonesia’s borders with Malaysia and the Philippines “to prevent acts of piracy and hijacking,” Tatang Sulaiman informed Reuters.

The Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Centre has additionally warned ships crusing within the Celebes Sea and northeast of the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo to remain away from suspicious small vessels.

COAL TRADE HIT

Two Indonesian coal ports have blocked departures of ships for the Philippines and extra suspensions are anticipated, mentioned Pandu Sjahrir, chairman of the Indonesian Coal Mining Association, and a director of Jakarta-listed coal producer Toba Bara Sejahtera.

Toba had suspended all shipments to the Philippines, Sjahrir mentioned. Other firms had canceled shipments “from both sides,” he added.

Indonesian state-owned coal miner Bukit Asam mentioned it was diverting Philippine coal shipments to Hong Kong for the subsequent three months. The firm ships lower than one million tonnes to the Philippines per yr, Bukit Asam company secretary Joko Pramono informed Reuters.

One firm with a fleet of 40 dry cargo ships noticed a silver lining, nonetheless.

“If Indonesia bans tugs and barges from exporting coal then it will have to travel in larger cargo ships, of 32,000 to 64,000 tonnes,” mentioned Khalid Hashim, managing director of Bangkok-listed Precious Shipping.

“All this would of course be beneficial for shippers like us.”

Indonesia, the world’s largest thermal coal exporter, provides 70 % of the Philippines’ coal import wants, which Indonesian information exhibits stood at about 15 million tonnes, value round $800 million, final yr.

Philippine coal importers, nonetheless, mentioned they might import coal from different international locations together with Australia, South Africa and Russia and supply extra regionally if Indonesian shipments dried up.

(Additional reporting by Keith Wallis in SINGAPORE and Wilda Asmarini in JAKARTA; Editing by Andrew Roche)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016.