A vessel loaded with Brazilian sugar destined for Iran was hijacked in the eastern Indian Ocean on Monday, according to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's shipping center, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Somali pirates are suspected of carrying out Monday's attack, a spokeswoman for NATO's shipping centre said.
The Bolivian-flagged vessel was destined for Bandar Imam Khomeini port in Iran, according to marine traffic shipping data. A total of 23 crew were on board but their nationalities weren't known.
Sourcing food commodities and oil for many nations is becoming increasingly tricky because dry-cargo carriers and crude tankers must travel through areas such as the Gulf of Aden, a region prone to Somali hijackings.
Of the 439 pirate attacks during 2011, 275 took place off the coast of Somalia or in the Gulf of Guinea, off the west coast of Africa, according to the United Nations International Maritime Organization.
A report from the organization shows that Somali pirate attacks were mainly concentrated where the Arabian Sea meets the Gulf of Aden, although 2011 marked the first hijacking by Somali pirates of an anchored vessel from the territorial waters of a foreign state, that of Oman.