Overall, the IMB estimates that piracy costs the shipping industry anywhere from $1 billion to $16 billion a year. Although this figure might appear unacceptable, it is generally viewed as an inevitable cost of doing business that, when measured against the annual value of maritime commerce—which in 2005 totalled $7.8 trillion—is not, in fact, prohibitively onerous.
------------------ Sixth, corruption and dysfunctional systems of national criminal justice have encouraged official complicity in high-level pirate rings, which has directly affected the phantom ship phenomenon. According to the IMB, in the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Thailand—all states where syndicates enjoy direct or at least partial access to co-opted or bribed members of the administration and bureaucracy— >>ships can be hijacked "to order" for approximately $300,000.<< These insiders not only provide invaluable information about activities taking place in the maritime commercial market, they also ensure that gangs are kept abreast of actions that industry or law enforcement are taking to counter their activities.