I'm gonna start with something we all know. We all know where the pirates generally lurk. So knowing that we get into a risk vs. reward mindset with these shipping companies. The following assumes a course coming out of the Red Sea after a transit through the Suez Canal.
The risk being, if I send my ships along the Somali coast it stands a chance of being hijacked and held for ransom by pirates. If I don't pay the ransom the crew I hired to man the ship may die. Then how do I get the cargo to its destination port? If I have to pay the ransom my company loses X million dollars/pounds/euros. And if it's a perishable cargo I take the loss for that cargo.
The reward. If I send my ships along the Somali coast I can save valuable time and money versus sending them around the Cape. Quicker delivery of cargo means my ships can take on another cargo much sooner and therefor make the company more money faster.
Now with that arguement we can see a total lack of common sense and personal distance from the situation at hand. What I mean by that is is somebody in an office in London or Baltimore or Singapore is looking at the financial aspect of the voyage versus employee safety. The person in the office does not have to navigate off the Horn of Somalia and run the risk of possibly being killed over a ransom. If the bean counters of the world got into one of the situations that they send people into "because it's cheaper for the company" I bet there decision making would change slightly. You don't need a gun or company of Marines to hold a ship. There are non-lethal means of defending a ship and they have been proven during a pirate attack.
During the pirate heydays of old they were treated like the worst villains on the face of the earth and were killed for their crimes. Today it seems we just grab a bag of popcorn and watch the show.
