The timber exporter responsible for shipping the cargo of missing feared hijacked ship the Arctic Sea admits it is mystified about the vessel’s disappearance and is relying on news reports for information.

Helsinki-based Rets Timber was shipping the vessel’s cargo of 6,700m³ of sawn redwood joinery timber to Algeria when the ship disappeared, feared hijacked in European waters.

“I am not worried about the timber,” said Kari Naumanen, managing director of Rets Timber. He said his concern was for the 12 Russian crew members and the ship.

“We are not getting any information about the whereabouts of the ship. But if the Russian secret service are now looking for the vessel, as media reports have said, they will find it.”

Mr Naumanen said Rets Timber shipped 1 million m³ of timber annually to North Africa and the Middle East, with the Arctic Sea having been contracted on the route for the past three years, loading at the Finnish ports of Valko and Pietarsaari.

“They are very professional people on the vessel and there have never been any problems.”

Mr Naumanen said he first found out about a hijack of the Arctic Sea in Swedish waters on the news.

“Then we heard the ship had been let go and continued its voyage. After the disappearance we started to think about it being hijacked only because of the emergence of the earlier incident.”

He said he would leave others to make conclusions about what had happened to the ship.

Timber on board was produced by sawmillers Stora Enso (2,000m³) and UPM (1,000m³), and a number of other privately owned Finnish mills, with the total value thought to be in the region of €1.3m.

The timber involved was owned by the Algerian receiving customer.

Mr Naumanen said North Africa was a steady market for timber and less affected by the recent financial crisis.

The Arctic Sea was last sighted off the Portugal Coast on July 29 and had been due to arrive in Algeria on August 4.

A group of men purporting to be police had earlier boarded the vessel near the Swedish island of Oland in the Baltic Sea but were thought to have then left.