The chemical tanker MT Bintang was hijacked and robbed by pirates near Tanjung Piai, Malaysia. The ship was operating on route to Singapore, when armed men boarded the ship with fast wooden boat. They attacked the unarmed ship and were able to hijack it for more than two hours. The pirates robbed everything, which was expensive according to their opinion. They took all the values, technologies and money from the crew before leaving the ship into their fast wooden boat and head to Malaysia. The robberies in the route were quite frequent last years as three more ships were attacked and robbed in the same way. The crew on board of the chemical tanker MT Bintang is in good health and had no injuries during the pirates attack.
The chemical tanker MT Bintang (IMO: 8514435) has deadweight of 7,133 DWT and gross tonnage of 4,553 GRT. The ship was previously onwed and operated by Stolt Tankers and carried the name Stolt Magnolia, but a few years ago was sold to Indonesian company Pegasus Samudera Tankers. The chemical tanker was built in 1985 in the Japanese shipyard of Usuki Iron Works.