It’s important to appreciate the impact the commodities market has, and is having, on the theft of metal. The correlation between the price of metal and the level of theft is a well-known and acknowledged indicator.
This correlation has in the past been broken by concerted crackdowns such as Operation Tornado and new legislation, but metal theft is on the rise again and it’s important to acknowledge the impact the depressed commodities market is having on the recycling industry. Scrap dealers are suffering and in the face of financial difficulty sections, of the industry will be more inclined to take risks and steal from unsuspecting businesses. This could include industrial gas businesses and one of their most obvious assets – cylinders.
The number of assets an organisation has is a risk in its own right. The Distribution Network Operators, for example, have thousands of assets that are at risk of being targeted by thieves. It’s not realistic both in terms of the sheer volume of assets and the cost of implementing a strategy to protect them all. In reality, organisations need to understand which assets are at most risk from theft, flooding and in today’s political climate, the threat of terrorist activity.
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